Jamal ordered to pay Maria Chin RM300,000 for defamation

KUALA LUMPUR: Red Shirts leader Datuk Seri Jamal Md Yunos has been ordered by the High Court to pay RM300,000 in damages to former Bersih 2.0 chief Maria Chin Abdullah for defamation.

Justice Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab granted the damages in a suit brought by Maria against Jamal for linking Bersih, also known as the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, with the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

Jamal was also ordered to pay RM40,000 in costs.

Counsel N. Surendran, Latheefa Koya and Shahid Adli Kamarudin appeared for Maria while law- yers Nasir Yusof and V. Muguntan represented Jamal, who is also the Sungai Besar Umno division chief.

Maria, who is now the Petaling Jaya MP, claimed that Jamal had on Sept 28, 2016, falsely uttered slanderous words against Bersih during a press conference on the Putra World Trade Centre grounds.

She also claimed that on Oct 4, 2016, Jamal had uttered similar slanderous words against Bersih during a media conference at the Bukit Aman police headquarters compound.

She said the media and news por- tals later published the statements.

Approached by reporters after the judgment, Maria said it had been proven that the coalition was not a terrorist group as claimed by Jamal.

Meanwhile, Nasir said he had received a directive from his client to file for an appeal.