The High Court judicial commissioner today denied Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd’s application to recuse herself from hearing the RM100 million defamation case filed against it by Anwar Ibrahim in relation to the armed intrusion in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

 

In her judgment, Rosilah Yop said the suit was based on an entirely different set of facts and had no bearing on Anwar's case against ‘Papagomo’ which had been decided earlier.

The case would be based on a full trial with submissions from both parties, she said, so there was no danger of bias.

The other party to the application was the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Abdul Aziz Ishak.

Rosilah denied the application with RM5,000 in costs and granted a stay of trial proceedings until next Monday to enable the lawyers to file an appeal.  

Abdul Aziz filed the application on April 14, alleging an issue of bias stating that in her judgment on Feb 19, Rosilah had described Anwar as a “leading politician” with a good reputation both locally and abroad but had been defamed by Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, 31, the blogger known as Papagomo.

The decision had been in favour of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat adviser with Wan Muhamad Azri ordered to pay RM800,000 in damages.  

Lawyer Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin represented Utusan and Abdul Aziz, while S Ambiga appeared for Anwar.

Anwar, 67, filed the defamation suit on March 8 naming as defendants, Utusan Melayu, its editor-in-chief, TV3, Media Prima Berhad group managing editor Shaharudin Latif and Buletin Utama news editor Ing Boon Seng.

In his statement of claim, Anwar claimed that Utusan Malaysia had published an article titled ‘ Ketua Pembangkang dikaitkan dengan pencerobohan? ’ (‘Opposition Leader linked to intrusion?’) on its front page and ‘ Tiga kumpulan jadi dalang’ (‘Three groups are the masterminds’) on page nine.

 

Anwar claimed that the report was also aired on TV3's Buletin Utama between 8 and 9pm the same day.  

- Bernama

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