The High Court in Penang today ruled that Jelutong Member of Parliament Jeff Ooi Chuan Aun of the DAP had defamed former Penang Municipal councillor Mohd Razali Abdullah and ordered him to pay RM150,000.

Judicial Commissioner Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera also ordered Ooi to pay RM20,000 in costs and interest of eight percent, to be calculated from the date of judgment until the date of settlement.

jeff ooi In his suit, Mohd Razali, 49, claimed that Ooi (left) had slandered him repeatedly and caused defamatory statements to be published by newspapers, websites and news portals in 2009 when he was a municipal councillor, and some of the defamatory words were repeated in newspapers in January 2010.

Vazeer Alam delivered the judgment after listening to submissions from Ooi's counsel Jagdeep Singh Deo and Mohd Razali's lawyer Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor.

Mohd Razali, who is a Pusat Urus Zakat (PUZ) board director, was not present as he is on official assignment in Egypt.

"The court also allows an injunction to stop the respondent from repeating and publishing the defamatory statements," the judge ruled.

On Feb 1, last year, Mohd Razali, a former PKR member, filed his suit against Ooi or slander.

He claimed that Ooi's statements had made him out as a religious extremist, incapable of acting professionally and carrying out his duties as a councillor despite his qualificatiosn as a land surveyor, and that he had mental problems because of the innuendo that he was a 'mad' man.

The articles were published by a number of local dailies, including Chinese dailies, in 2009.

The defence had called three witnesses while the plaintiff called four.  

- Bernama