The High Court in Shah Alam today dismissed a defamation suit filed by Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali against The Sun daily.

 

Judicial commissioner M‎ Gunalan ruled the article in question was not about Ibrahim but about the Malay rights group Perkasa.

 

Hence, Justice Gunalan also ruled that what the newspaper reported was justified and the daily was protected by qualified privilege.

 

"The court also orders the plaintiff (Ibrahim) to pay RM50,000 in costs," he said in his ruling on the 2010 case.

The Sun ( file photo on the right ) and its editors were represented by Nitin Nadkarni and Himahlini Ramalingam.

Ibrahim had filed a RM5 million suit over an article titled 'Sultan keeps Perkasa guessing' over a report in 2010, quoting sources that the Selangor sultan had reservations in launching Perkasa's first general assembly.

Ibrahim to appeal

The daily's former ex-deputy editor, special reports and investigations, Terence Fernandez, had written that the sultan's reluctance to launch Perkasa's AGM was due to the ruler's concern that the organisation was viewed as a chauvinist group.

Ibrahim was represented by lawyer Harmy Yusoff.

The Perkasa president told Malaysiakini when contacted that he would appeal today's decision as he was not satisfied that the Selangor Sultan had indeed said the movement was racist.

"It is The Sun reporter who fabricated, without any evidence and the court believed the daily although the Sultan said no such thing. I sued The Sun as it an allegation against the Selangor palace.

"There is an error in the judgment, which I hope a three-member Court of Appeal panel will review," Ibrahim said.