After a reminder from Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s special legal officer, PAS information chief Nasrudin Hassan has paid Lim the RM10,000 that the court ordered three months ago.

"Nasrudin has deposited the RM10,000 into my firm's client account yesterday and I will forward the payment to Lim as per instructions, " Nasrudin's lawyer Wan Rohimi Wan Daud said in a statement today.

"I have faxed the payment information to Lim's lawyer late last evening."

Lim's special legal officer Raja Syarafina Raja Shuib had pointed out on Tuesday that Nasrudin had yet to comply with the Penang High Court's order that he pay Lim RM10,000 in costs for posting an offending article on Facebook.

Wan Rohimi said the court order was delivered to them on Sept 19, but in the same letter, Lim's lawyer had provided them a deadline of Oct 2 to settle the payment.

Five days after the deadline, Lim's lawyer had sent a new notice of claim dated Oct 7, he said, though his office only received the notice on Oct 11.

Before any execution proceedings were filed and on Oct 11 itself, Syarafina had started 'attacking' Nasrudin on this issue, Wan Rohimi said.

"Syarafina's statement had one conclusion, which is that Nasrudin had insulted the court by disobeying the court's order to pay the costs - thus trying to sow a negative perception of Nasrudin."

He said he had never encountered the practice of talking about the proceeding’s costs and contempt of court to the media without filing any appropriate legal proceedings.

He added he had already informed Nasrudin about the costs earlier when the Temerloh MP was overseas, but his client needed time to come up with the money.

That is why they went over the deadline in the first place, he said, adding that Nasrudin's financial position should not be equated with Lim's.

"Nasrudin can only afford to live in a single-floor terrace house by the forest on the outskirts of Kuantan. Even then it is with debt.

"There is no million-dollar bungalow, no swimming pool and no cronies to donate millions in an hour.

"Hence, his tardiness by one week should be forgiven," Wan Rohimi said.

He also dismissed what Syarafina had said, about an additional RM2,000 that Nasrudin owed Lim.

As there was no court order delivered by the other side, the issue of the RM2,000 does not arise at all, he said.

This is something all lawyers, including Syarafina, should understand, he said.

Similarly, he said the RM500 that Lim owed Nasrudin did not arise as they also had not sent a court order.

"Lim wants to claim the RM2,000 in costs? Let him claim, as that is his right.

"But do so through the right process," he said.

Yesterday, in response to Syarafina's reminder about the RM10,000, Nasrudin had pointed out that Lim had also yet to pay him RM500 as ordered by the High Court.

Syarafina countered that by saying Nasrudin owed Lim another RM2,000 on top of the RM10,000.