Judges recuse themselves from Rafizi’s case
PUTRAJAYA: Two Court of Appeal judges recused themselves from hearing an appeal brought by Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli over an order to pay RM200,000 in damages yesterday.
The panel of judges, led by Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Datuk Mary Lim, recused themselves as they were also on a three-member panel of the same court in a defamatory suit involving Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar.
“After having considered submissions, we are of the view that in the interest of justice, we will not hear the case,” said Abang Iskandar.
He said the case will be heard before a new panel of judges. Case management has been fixed for March 23 next year.
Rafizi is appealing against a High Court decision, which ordered him to pay damages to National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) executive chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail and the company for defaming them over the purchase of a property in KL Eco City, Bangsar.
The High Court judge had ordered Rafizi to pay damages of RM150,000 to Mohamad Salleh and RM50,000 to his company.
However, the court dismissed Mohamad Salleh and NFCorp’s suit against the owner of Malaysiakini, who was named as the second defendant and ordered the plaintiffs to pay RM50,000 in costs to the news portal.
Mohamad Salleh and NFCorp filed a defamation suit on June 3, 2013, claiming that on March 7, 2012, Rafizi had made a defamatory statement in a media conference at the PKR office on the purchase of KL Eco City properties, which was published by Malaysiakini on the same day.
On July 10 this year, the judges heard an appeal related to a defamation suit by NFCorp and Mohamad Salleh against Nurul Izzah and PKR over a statement regarding the purchase of eight units in the KL Eco City project.
The two judges dismissed the appeal by NFCorp and Salleh with RM50,000 in costs to Nurul Izzah and party secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution.
On Dec 24, 2013, Salleh and the company filed the suit against Nurul Izzah and Saifuddin, alleging that Nurul Izzah had slandered them in her comments on the alleged disclosure by Rafizi Ramli, who was the former PKR strategy director.