Papagomo loses damages appeal
PUTRAJAYA: Blogger Papagomo has failed in his Federal Court appeal to avoid paying RM800,000 in damages to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim over defamatory posts online.
Papagomo, whose real name is Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, yesterday had his bid for leave to appeal dismissed by a three-man Federal Court bench, chaired by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum.
Wan Muhammad was appealing against a 2014 Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling that ordered him to pay damages to former opposition leader Anwar over defamatory posts on the blog www.papagomo.com.
In reading out the ruling, Malanjum said there was no merit in Wan Muhammad’s bid for a leave to appeal and ordered him to pay RM10,000 in costs to Anwar.
Counsel Amran Aminuddin acted for Azri, while Anwar was represented by lawyer Latheefa Koya.
The other members on the Federal Court bench were Tan Sri Hasan Lah and Tan Sri Zaharah Ibrahim.
In February 2014, the High Court ordered Wan Muhammad to pay RM800,000 in damages when it found him liable for defaming Anwar, who was then Pakatan Rakyat leader and Permatang Pauh member of parliament.
The High Court had also ordered Wan Muhammad, 33, to pay RM50,000 in costs to Anwar, who is serving a five-year jail sentence for sodomy.
The Court of Appeal upheld the verdict in December last year, and had ordered Azri to pay another RM10,000 in costs to Anwar.
Wan Muhammad, who was the editor of news portal www.rakyatnews.my, formerly known as KL Pos Media & Production Sdn Bhd, had publicly denied being the blogger Papagomo.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal has ordered a former home minister and three others to pay RM350,000 in damages to Seputeh member of parliament Teresa Kok Suh Sim over her 2008 detention under the Internal Security Act 1950 (ISA).
A three-man bench, chaired by Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, yesterday ruled against former home minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Musa Hassan, deputy superintendent E. Kim Tien and the government.
The bench had unanimously allowed an appeal by Kok, whose lawsuit was dismissed by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on April 22 last year.
Abang Iskandar ruled that Syed Hamid and the other respondents failed to prove that the arresting officer had sufficient grounds for detaining Kok under the ISA.
He said there was no immediate or imminent act by Kok that justified her arrest and detention under the ISA on Sept 12, 2008. He also ordered all four respondents to pay RM70,000 in costs to Kok.
After the proceedings, Kok said she was satisfied with the verdict, which she said she had been waiting for since filing the suit.
Counsel S.N. Nair appeared for Kok, while senior federal counsel Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku Abdul Rahman acted for the respondents.
Kok filed the suit in 2009, claiming that she was not allowed to contact her relatives or lawyers when detained at her residence at Pearl Tower, OG Heights, on Sept 12 the previous year.