The Court of Appeal today deferred its decision on Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali.

He was convicted of contempt by the KL High Court and sentenced to a day’s jail and a fine of RM20,000 in November last year.

The former Pasir Mas MP is appealing the decision.

Justice Abdul Wahab Patail, who is leading the three member panel, said they needed time to deliver its decision after having heard the submissions.

"The matter is adjourned to a date yet to be fixed," he said.

The other judges were Justices David Wong Dak Wah and George Varughese Varughese.

This follows the Perkasa website had put up an article by a blogger and former Perkasa information technology head Zainuddin Salleh criticising former KL high court judge VT Singham ( left ) in January last year.

Zainuddin was sentenced to four weeks jail following the posting but he is not appealing in the conviction and sentence.

Blog registered under author

Ibrahim's lawyer Adnan Seman had submitted that the article first appeared in Zainuddin's blog and the latter had uploaded the same article on the Perkasa website.

“However, Ibrahim does not have any knowledge of the article and did not know that it was uploaded on the website.

“Furthermore, the alleged website is not owned by Perkasa but by Zainuddin himself where he is the registered owner. Since then, the website has been taken down,” Adnan told the court.

The lawyer further submitted that as Perkasa does not own the website, Ibrahim should not be faulted.

He added that Perkasa cannot be held accountable as the posting does not represent the organisation's views and hence Section 51(1) and 51(2) of the Societies Act does not apply.

Hence, Adnan said the court must set aside the conviction for contempt and sentence on Ibrahim.

However, Counsel Sivarasa Rasiah ( left ), representing Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and who initiated the contempt proceeding on Ibrahim, told the court that the Perkasa president had not denied that the website was owned by the organisation.

“If the website is not owned by Perkasa, he should have distanced (Perkasa) and denied that the site is owned by the organisation. He should have done this in the first place.

“However, there was no denial made and the KL High Court judge found that Ibrahim can be held liable because of this as there was nothing in his affidavit stating otherwise,” Sivarasa said.

'Type Perkasa, get wesbite'

Besides this, Sivarasa said that Zainuddin had claimed 75 per cent of the website is monitored by the Perkasa information chief and also the president.

This, according to Sivarasa, amounted to an admission that Ibrahim is partly responsible for the site's content.

He also pointed out that  below the article, there is a sentence at the bottom of the website which stated that it is owned by Perkasa.

Following this, Bar Council representative Steven Thiru ( right ), who stood as amicus curaie (a friend of the court), then submitted that when you typed the word 'Perkasa' online, you would find the address to this website.

“This court has been asking about linkages to Ibrahim and this is clear that when you type the organisation (in an online search) it would link it to this website. This shows direct correlation with the website with Perkasa.

“What was posted in the article amounts to a scurrilous attack on a judge and judiciary,” he said, adding that Zainuddin was also Perkasa's information technology head.

However, senior federal counsel from the Attorney-General's Chambers Mohammad Al Saufi Hashim also said it was wrong to link Ibrahim to the article as he could not have known that it was posted on the website which Perkasa did not own.