Batu Burok rep and three others need not pay damages

KUALA LUMPUR: Batu Burok assemblyman Dr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi and three others need not pay RM200,000 in damages to Datuk Seri Ahmad Said over an article on a contract involving school uniforms and stationery.

This was after the Court of Appeal granted their appeal against the High Court’s decision which awarded RM200,000 in general and exemplary damages to the former Terengganu mentri besar.

In allowing the appeal, Justice Lim Yee Lan, who chaired the threemember panel, said their decision was unanimous.

The other judges who presided on the Bench were Justices Varghese George Varughese and P. Nalini.

Justice Varghese said the conclusion of the trial judge that malice had been proved was flawed and called for their interference.

The court later allowed a RM15,000 cost to be paid by Ahmad.

On Feb 28 last year, Ahmad had been awarded RM200,000 after winning his defamation suit against Dr Syed Azman, Harakah permit owner Datuk Mustafa @ Hassan Ali, its chief editor Ahmad Lutfi Othman and printer Angkatan Edaran Enterprise Sdn Bhd.

High Court Judicial Commissioner Rosilah Yop granted the amount to Ahmad and RM30,000 in costs.

However, two other plaintiffs businessmen Mek Hawa Abdul Rahman and Hamie Azreen Ami Nordin failed to prove their claim against the defendants.

Ahmad sued Dr Syed Azman, Mustafa, Ahmad Lutfi and Angkatan Edaran Enterprise for implying in the article that the state government had mismanaged the school uniform and stationery supply contract.

In the suit, the plaintiffs said Dr Syed Azman had written a defamatory article linking them, adding that it was published in Harakah’s Nov 1113, 2011 edition.

In the statement of claim filed on Dec 15, 2011, they said the article implied that the state government and the mentri besar had wrongfully gained profits from the school uniform and stationery aid programme.