The Court of Appeal will deliver its decision on Friday on an appeal by Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali, information chief Ruslan Kassim, and three newspapers over the damages of RM550,000 they have to pay Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng after losing a defamation suit.

The three publications are New Straits Times (M) Bhd, Berita Harian Sdn Bhd and Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd. The articles appeared in 2011 alleging Lim of being a spy for Singapore.

The chief minister also filed a cross-appeal over the quantum of damages.

Today a three-member bench led by Justice Rohana Yusof heard submissions on the matter presented by lawyer Reuben Mathiavaranam for the publications and Americk Sidhu who appeared for Lim.

The other two judges are Justice Idrus Harun and Mary Lim.

Citing the case of Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaacob, Reuben questioned Lim's legal standing when he filed the suit as it seemed he made the filing in his capacity as the Penang CM, and not as an individual.

He also submitted that the articles in question were in the form of a query about Lim's visit to Singapore under the pretense of InvestPenang and meeting some leaders in Singapore.

Reuben said the court should accept the defence of fair comment as it is in public interest to raise the issue and it was an expression of opinion made on the facts which are purportedly true.

“The articles are based on the underlying facts of truth, namely there was a visit to Singapore and they met PAP officials,” he said, adding that the quantum of damages they were required to pay are excessive.

The lawyer however admitted that the newspapers did not verify with Lim on the veracity of the articles.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim's lawyer Adnan Seman told the court that Perkasa should not be dragged into the picture as the articles were Ruslan's view.

“Ruslan uploaded it on the Perkasa website without the knowledge of my client and hence Ibrahim and Perkasa should be absolved,” he said.

Ruslan's lawyer PG Cyril said the article was not defamatory, and adopted Reuben's argument on locus standi.

Business trip

Americk told the court that the attack on Lim was based on his personal capacity as a politician and not as CM, and it was merely a business trip to attract investments.

“Furthermore, the appellants did not raise the issue of locus standi at the trial stage and it would be wrong for the court to consider this as an issue,” he said in citing two case authorities.

It has nothing to do with Lim's administration of the state and Lim should be given the safeguard and constitutional guarantee to initiate the suit, Americk added.

He added that his client was also able to prove malice on the part of the publications, and a journalist from NST testified that the paper being under the control of BN, while an Utusan editor had admitted that Umno was the majority shareholder.

Americk submitted that Lim was having a dinner with corporate leaders from the Temasik group and it did not involve PAP officials.

On the quantum, he said the amount of RM200,000 to be paid by NSTP was lenient as it involved two publications namely, the New Sunday Times and Berita Minggu.

“Hence, the amount should be doubled,” he said.

In March 2015, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered them to pay a total of RM550,000 in damages.

Justice Nor Bee Ariffin criticised the publications for coming out with the article two months after the purported trip and not verifying it with Lim, and described such acts as irresponsible journalism.