Jazimin Abdul Jalil, the father of Nurin Jazlin who was murdered over three years ago, today lost his RM2 million defamation suit against the police and the government.

Judicial Commissioner Asmabi Mohamad dismissed, with costs, the suit against former Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar, inspector-general of police and the government.

nurin parents 200907 jazimin abdul jalil norazian bistaman Jazimin (photo: left) claimed that defamatory statements had been made that Nurin Jazlin's disappearance was connected to ah long (loan sharks).

In his suit filed on Aug 21, 2008, Jazimin said the defendants' statements which appeared in a newspaper article under the headline, 'Siasat ah long larikan Nurin' (Probe claim ah long abducted Nurin) had tarnished his good name and reputation.

He claimed that the statement meant he (Jazimin) had taken loans from ah longs and this had endangered the lives of his family members.

nurin jazlin jazimin Nurin Jazlin, eight, was abducted near her house in Section 1, Wangsa Maju, on Aug 20, 2007. Her body was found in a sports bag, 27 days later.

In her ruling, Asmabi said that, after hearing the evidence during a full trial, the court was satisfied the defamatory words contained in the suit were not those uttered by Khalid in his statement during a press conference.

She said Khalid called for the press conference on Sept 20, 2007, to inform the public on the progress of the investigations into the Nurin Jazlin case as he had a moral and social duty to inform the public that it was high-profile case and of public interest.

Asmabi said the Kosmo reporter who testified in court had admitted that he wrote the article based on his understanding over what was said by Khalid and that it was not Khalid's exact quote at the press conference.

In his evidence, the reporter had admitted he did not jot down the entire text of what Khalid had said but only jotted down the main points, she added.

The judicial commissioner also said evidence from New Straits Times and Oriental Daily reporters indicated they did not hear the words as printed in Kosmo which quoted Khalid on loan sharks.

"In this case, the plaintiff had named the wrong parties in the suit and should have instead, sued Kosmo and its reporter. Hence, the suit is dismissed with costs," she said.

Senior federal counsel Noorin Badaruddin, who represented the defendants, applied for RM50,000 in legal costs to be paid by the plaintiff to the defendants.

Asmabi, however, allowed Jazimin's counsel Natasha Bashir's application for costs to be assessed later.

Met by reporters, Jazimin said he would discuss with his counsel on whether he wanted to appeal over today's ruling.

- Bernama