The Court of Appeal has fixed Oct 12 to deliver its decision in the appeal by Raub Australian Gold Mining (RAGM) against a High Court judgment in a defamation suit found in favour of Bukit Koman villager Hue Shieh Lee.

Justice David Wong Dak Wah, who chaired a three-member bench, today reserved the decision after hearing submissions presented by both parties.

The court will also deliver the grounds of judgment on Oct 12.

In 2013, RAGM filed a suit against Shieh Lee, the Ban Cyanide Action Group (BCAC) vice-chairperson, over two articles published by Malaysiakini and Free Malaysia Today.

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur ruled on May 17 that RAGM failed to prove that Shieh Lee's statement against the gold mine was of malicious falsehood and ordered the company to pay RM20,000 in costs.

In her judgment, Justice Yeoh Wee Siam said the plaintiff failed to prove that the survey results read out by the defendant are false because the plaintiff failed to call any, or all of the 383 residents, to prove that they did not suffer from any health problems as a result of the plaintiff's use of cyanide in its operation of the gold mine.

The judge also mentioned that the plaintiff did not call the reporter, who purportedly interviewed the defendant, as a witness to prove that the defendant had uttered or published those words.

In his submission, Cecil Abraham, acting for RAGM, argued that it was not the obligation of the plaintiff to call any or all of the 383 residents to prove whether they have suffered from any health problems.

The lawyer also stressed the importance of publishing a true survey instead of misinformation.

On the second article, which the plaintiff did not call the reporter as a witness during the trial, Abraham insisted that Shieh Lee never denied her statement in the article.

Thus, he said, it is not necessary to call the reporter as a witness to prove that the defendant had uttered those words.

Shieh Lee conveyed her suspicion

Meanwhile, in her submission, Shieh Lee's lawyer Jessica Ram Binwani argued that defendant conveyed her suspicion over the issue when she read out a survey during the press conference.

"She was suspicious, she was concerned over the residents' health issue. In fact, they closed the press conference by asking the related departments to conduct their investigations," said Jessica Ram.

On the second article published by Free Malaysia Today, she pointed out that the sentence used by the reporter on that article was "According to...", instead of the exact words uttered by Shieh Lee.

"These are words published by FMT, not what Shieh Lee said. What is the word spoken by her (Shieh Lee)? We do not know.

"That is the reason why the judge said there is a need to call the reporter as a witness," submitted Jessica Ram.

RAGM in 2013 initiated defamation suits against three members of the BCAC, which had been campaigning against the company's gold mine near their village in Bukit Koman, Raub, Pahang.

Other than Sheih Lee, the other two suits involved BCAC's chairperson Wong Kim Hoong and secretary Hue Fui How.

Subsequently, Wong and Fui How apologised in open court to RAGM over their statements and RAGM withdrew its suit against the duo.

However, Shieh Lee opted to fight her case in court.

RAGM also filed a defamation suit against Malaysiakini. On May 23, the High Court dismissed the company’s claim against Malaysiakini and three other defendants who are members of the news portal's editorial team.