Ban Cyanide Action Committee (BCAC) chairperson Wong Kin Hoong has apologised in open court to the Raub Australian Gold Mine (RAGM) Sdn Bhd over his statement made during a press conference for Himpunan Hijau Raub on Aug 2, 2012.

 

RAGM had filed a defamation suit against Wong ( left ) for his statement made there.

An article was subsequently published on the same day, titled ‘Raub folk to rally against ‘poisonous’ gold mine’, in Malaysiakini .

 

Counsel for RAGM Sunil Abraham, when reading out the statement in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today, said the defendant was prepared, in order to resolve this matter, to apologise for any statement in the article that may have cause any embarrassment and inconvenience to the plaintiff.

 

Sunil said Wong acknowledged that he was not aware of any justification to the contents of the article.

 

“The defendant is present here today, in person, to apologise to the plaintiff. The plaintiff is willing to accept the amends now offered by the defendant,” said Sunil.

 

On behalf of Wong, his counsel Jessica Binwani said her client apologised for any embarrassment or inconvenience that may have arisen by reason of the publication of the statements in the article.

RAGM then withdrew the suit against Wong.

Lawyers for both parties had reached the settlement after a two-hour discussion with judge Yeoh Wee Siam in chambers.

According to the report, Wong accused RAGM of making money by extracting “dirty gold”, while urging people to join the Himpunan Hijau Raub rally on Sept 2, 2012.

Speaking to the press later, Wong admitted that the resolution of the case had “slightly” affected their campaign against RAGM for extracting gold by using cyanide.

“However, we will continue our struggle as the problem has not been resolved,” he stressed.

Wong said that the committee’s next step was to engage with RAGM in order for both parties to provide expertise to investigate the root cause of the health problems faced by the Bukit Koman villagers.

He reiterated that what the villagers wanted was a healthy and safe living environment.

Besides Wong, RAGM also launched a defamation suit against BCAC vice-president Shirley Hue and secretary Hue Fui How over their allegedly defamatory statements made through media reports.

Jessica said that the case management for Fui How’s case would take place this coming Friday.

RAGM previously had also filed a defamation suit against Malaysiakini and several news portals, but Malaysiakini had vowed to fight the lawsuit.