The Court of Appeal in Putrajaya today ordered printer Syarikat Prema to pay RM50,000 in general damages to businesswoman Ummi Hafilda Ali for defamation.

Sulaiman Daud, heading a three-man panel, made the order after allowing the company’s appeal in part.

The panel, also comprising justices Ramly Ali and Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad, upheld a High Court decision which held the company liable for defaming Ummi Hafilda.

However, the court allowed Syarikat Prema's appeal to reduce the quantum of damages from RM100,000 - ordered by the High Court to pay Ummi Hafilda - to RM50,000, with interest and cost.

Sulaiman said it was the court’s view that the sum of RM100,000 in damages awarded by the High Court was excessive.

On June 7, 2006, the High Court ordered PAS, Halim Arshat, who was the political party’s former secretary-general, and the then-registered permit holder of the Harakah publication, Harakah former editor-in-chief Mustafa Ali, to pay RM100,000 in general damages to Ummi Hafilda.

It also ordered Syarikat Prema to pay RM100,000 to Ummi Hafilda, who gained prominence during the trial of Anwar Ibrahim’s corruption trial.

The High Court also ordered that eight percent interest be added on the judgment sum from the date of filing of the writ on April 30, 1999, until full realisation and an injunction to restrain the respondents from further publishing defamatory words about her.

PAS, Halim and Mustafa did not lodge an appeal.

Ummi Hafilda, 46, sued PAS, Halim, Mustafa and Sabri Zain, the writer of the bi-weekly tabloid over an article headlined ‘Malaysia Sweeps 10 Oscars’, which appeared in the March 29, 1999 issue of Harakah , containing various negative descriptions of the businesswoman.

In her statement of claim, she said that by reason of the publication of the defamatory article, she had been seriously injured in her character, credit and reputation, and in the way of her business, and had been brought into public scandal, odium and contempt.

Ummi Hafilda obtained a judgment-in-default against Sabri on Nov 22, 1999 but the order could not be executed against Sabri who could not be located.

- Bernama