Felda’s award in suit against Wan Azizah raised to RM2mil

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has awarded Felda and its subsidiary Felda Global Ventures Holdings Sdn Bhd (FGV) increased damages of RM2mil in their defamation suit against PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and two others.

The plaintiffs had been awarded RM70,000 in February.

The defamation suit was in relation to two articles published in PKR’s newspaper Suara Keadilan seven years ago.

Justice Su Geok Yiam ordered the three respondents – Dr Wan Azizah, Dr Syed Husin Ali and the writer of the articles, Rusnizam Mahat – to pay the RM2mil in general and aggravated damages from the date of judgment until full realisation.

Justice Su made the order after allowing an appeal by Felda and FGV against the RM70,000 damages awarded by High Court deputy registrar Norfauzani Mohd Nordin on Feb 13.

Justice Su ruled that she agreed with the appellants’ counsel, Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun, that the sum awarded was extraordinarily low.

“In my opinion, if the very low sum is not set aside and substituted with the appropriate sum, it would trivialise the damages on statutory bodies,” she said in her judgment yesterday.

Justice Su said the deputy registrar failed to consider the effect of the articles, which caused Felda and FGV to suffer financial losses and share value depreciation.

She also ordered RM25,000 in costs to be paid by the respondents to the appellants.

Felda and FGV were represented by Hafarizam and Nor Emelia Mohd Iszeham while Francis Pereira appeared for Dr Wan Azizah, former PKR vice-president Dr Syed Husin and Rusnizam.

On Feb 13, Norfauzani awarded RM70,000 to the appellants in chambers during the damage assessment procedure.

Felda and FGV filed their RM200mil defamation suit on Aug 16, 2010 over two news reports published by Suara Keadilan on June 22 and 29 that year.

The plaintiffs alleged that an article with the heading Felda Bankrap ( Felda is bankrupt) and another, Bina Bangunan RM662 juta Hanya Libatkan Tiga Individu ( Construction of a RM662mil building only involved three individuals) accompanied by a photograph captioned Kontroversi, had tarnished their image.

On Sept 30, 2014, Suara Keadilan’s former editor Dzulkarnain Taib, who was initially named as one of the defendants, tendered an apology to the plaintiffs.

He stated that the articles were erroneous and published to intentionally belittle the plaintiffs and damage their reputation.

On Oct 17 that year, the High Court ruled in favour of Felda and FGV.