Veteran journalist MGG Pillai will ask the Federal Court to review its earlier decision in upholding the award of RM2 million in damages which Pillai was ordered to pay a businessman in a defamation suit.

Pillai will file the motion seeking the review at the Federal Court registry tomorrow.

Pillai is seeking the review on the grounds that the Federal Court which heard his appeal could have acted in bias following a known friendship between the then Chief Justice Eusoff Chin and counsel VK Lingam, who acted for businessman Vincent Tan who sued him (Pillai).

Eusoff was on the Federal Court panel which heard the appeal.

The Federal Court delivered a written judgment in July last year upholding the decision of the High Court which ordered Pillai to pay the amount to Tan.

Award reasonable

The High Court in 1994 found Pillai guilty of defaming Tan in an article which he wrote in the Malaysian Industry magazine. Pillai and several other defendants were ordered to pay Tan damages amounting to RM10 million. Pillai's share amounted to a total of RM2 million.

Pillai and two others then appealed to the Court of Appeal which dismissed their appeal in 1995. The Federal Court, which also had Chief Judge of Malaya Wan Adnan Ismail and Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Chong Siew Fai on the panel, then heard Pillai's appeal in January 1998.

The Federal Court dismissed Pillai's appeal on the grounds that the award made by the High Court was reasonable and based on established principles of law.

Pillai told malaysiakini he was seeking the review on the possibility of apparent or real bias and a denial of justice as a result of Eusoff sitting in the panel.

"This review is due to Eusoff's close relationship with Tan's lawyer VK Lingam," he said, adding that the element of being biased was compounded by the appearance of photographs of both Eusoff and Lingam with their families on holiday together in New Zealand.

Pinochet principle

Eusoff faced investigations over the holiday, which took place in 1994, but no action was taken against him as the Attorney-General's Chambers said it found no evidence of misconduct.

Eusoff, too, denied any wrongdoing over the incident, claiming that he met Lingam in New Zealand by chance and that he had paid for his own holiday.

Pillai added that his application was strengthened by the Pinochet principle set by the British House of Lords, which quashed an earlier decision to extradite General Augusto Pinochet to Spain and ordered a retrial because it was learnt later one Law Lords and his wife were active in Amnesty International.

Amnesty had actively campaigned for the former Chilean president's extradition to Spain.