PUA FAILS IN BID TO LIFT NAJIB’S INTERIM INJUNCTION

Three-man bench dismisses MP’s appeal to set aside High Court decision

THE Court of Appeal yesterday rejected an appeal by Tony Pua Kiam Wee to lift an interim interparte injunction obtained by Datuk Seri Najib Razak against the Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament over a video clip, which the prime minister claimed was defamatory.

The three-man bench comprising Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, Puan Sri Zaleha Yusof and Datuk Yaacob Md Sam unanimously dismissed Pua’s appeal to set aside a High Court decision on Aug 4 last year, granting Najib the injunction order to restrain Pua from repeating the alleged slanderous allegations.

The bench made the decision after finding that Pua’s grounds of appeal had no basis, did not have any merit and excuse to interfere with the High Court’s decision.

Yaacob, who delivered the court’s judgment, said the court found that Najib had satisfied the necessary requirements for an interim injunction to be allowed.

He said there was evidence of Pua’s intention to repeat the alleged defamatory statement.

Yaacob said the High Court judge did not commit any misdirection of law when granting Najib the interim injunction.

He said the court took judicial notice that the attorney-general (A-G) had made a decision that Najib had committed no wrongdoing in relation to 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

He said investigations were carried out by the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC), police, Bank Negara and the Attorney-General’s Chambers. The results, which have been disclosed to the public by the A-G and MACC, had cleared Najib of any wrongdoing.

In the proceedings, Najib was represented by Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun while Gobind Singh Deo acted on behalf of Pua.

The video clip was recorded by the lawmaker at the Parliament lobby and was uploaded onto the Facebook account, under the name of Tony Pua, entitled: “BN govt abandons all bills to give precedence to Pas RUU 355 private member’s bill”.

Najib had claimed the video clip could be accessed widely on the Internet.

He sued Pua in his personal capacity, alleging that the latter had made defamatory statements against him on live video relating to the tabling of the bill.

On April 21 last year, the High Court allowed Najib’s application for an ex-parte injunction to restrain Pua from further publishing similar or the same words.

On Jan 26, the appellate court bench reserved decision in Pua’s appeal after hearing submissions from counsels.

The court subsequently fixed yesterday to deliver the verdict.

After the court’s decision, Hafarizam said the trial of the lawsuit was fixed for April 23.

Gobind said he would be filing for leave to appeal to the Federal Court.