Defamation suit: RPK ignores it, Shafee sees red

A bit of drama unfolded at the Jalan Duta Court Complex this morning when lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah attempted to serve defamation summons on Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin.

Shafee, who filed a defamation suit against Raja Petra on Wednesday, had been waiting since morning for Raja Petra to make his appearance in the magistrate's court for another matter.

He planned to serve his defamation summons on Raja Petra as per the legal requirement.

Tension increased when Raja Petra arrived at the court room at 11am and Shafee walked up to him to officially serve the summons.

“Here you go. I’m giving it to you now,” said Shafee handing over a thick pile of documents.

Raja Petra looked at Shafee and said: “What is this?”

He then ignored Shafee and turned to consult with his lawyers. After that, he walked to his seat in court.

An upset Shafee then dropped the court papers on the floor. They remained on the floor with Raja Petra refusing to picked them up.

The documents were however missing after the court proceedings.

In his suit, Shafee had claimed that Raja Petra had defamed him in three of his articles.

He has also obtained an order from the Kuala Lumpur High Court to direct Raja Petra to reveal the identities of people who had commented on those articles dated Aug 6, Aug 7 and Aug 11 and to reveal his sources.

RPK charged with criminal defamation

This morning, Shafee brushed off Raja Petra's allegations as a lie and said that he was "stupid" to make the defamatory statements.

"I challenge him to come to court to prove his case… he has picked the wrong guy. He can get away with politicians because they have no time to come to court but I have no problem there," he added.

Yesterday, Raja Petra had refused to comment on the matter, stating that he had not received any court order.

However, Shafee said Raja Petra is aware of the order and should have removed the articles.

"If he doesn't do it, I'm going ahead with contempt… no matter how long it (the court) takes," he warned.

Raja Petra's was at the magistrate court today to be charged with three counts of criminal defamation against Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor, her former aide Norhayati Hassan and acting colonel Aziz Buyong.

However, Raja Petra refused to enter a plea.

"I refuse to respond to the plea on grounds that the charges are both defective and mala fide (in bad faith)," he said the first time the charges were read and repeated that "my reply is the same" to consecutive charges.

Raja Petra had in a June 18 statutory declaration implicated Rosmah, Aziz Buyong, who is described as 'a C4 expert' and his wife, known only as Norhayati Hassan in the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu.

The case was later transferred to Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court.

Raja Petra: Acted on lawyer's advice

Meanwhile, Raja Petra said he did not accept the summons from Shafee on the advice of his lawyers.

"I acted on my lawyer's advice… the last time I came to court I decided how to conduct my case (and) I sacked my lawyer (at that time)… today the lawyer said if I talked too much, I don't have to sack them but they would resign," he quipped.

Raja Petra's lawyer Amarjit Singh Sidhu added that it was not proper to serve the paper in the courtroom and that it could "amount to contempt of court".

"If the document is served to the solicitor, of course, I would have accepted it," said Amarjit.

However, Shafee blasted Raja Petra saying that he did not accept the papers because he was afraid to confront the matter.

"This is why I'm telling you he is a coward. He evades service because he can't confront issues… he cannot prove (the statements)," he exploded.

"He will tell you some rubbish that he is protect(ing) his source but he is actually protecting his butt.

"I'm going to uncover all this and I want to make him crawl in court and I'll prove (him wrong). It is high time for someone to tell him he cannot do this," he added.

Raja Petra a 'media villain'

Shafee also clarified that it was not wrong to hand out the summons in the courtroom as the court was not in session.

"I don't want to serve outside knowing he will evade service because he is a coward... as it is, he never entered appearances in two other cases," he said referring to a lawsuit where Raja Petra was ordered to pay RM4 million in damages to Nordin Kardi, the vice-chancellor of University Utara Malaysia.

"He didn't pay up because he said he was bankrupt and he ignored the order.

"(But) he is not only bankrupt but bankrupt of ideas. He cooks up stories and he wants to propagate some individuals in politics," said Shafee.

He added that Raja Petra was not an "independent blogger and he is not a journalist".

"If this happened in Europe or America they would call him a media villain. He is just a crook who lies in his blog," said Shafee.