The Federal Court has found Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Yong Teck Lee and his party liable for defaming the former Sabah chief minister Harris Salleh.

In affirming the decision of the High Court in Kota Kinabalu, the Federal Court also found the damages awarded to Harris to be excessive and lowered the quantum from RM1 million to RM600,000.

The court also awarded an eight percent interest on the damages, starting from the date of the High Court's decision on Feb 29, 2012, and a global sum of RM200,000 for costs.

The unanimous decision was made today by a five-member panel chaired by Chief Justice Md Raus Sharif.

Harris (photo) had sued Yong and SAPP for RM50 million in damages after Yong implicated him in a June 6, 1976, air crash that killed the then-Sabah Chief Minister Fuad Stephens and 10 others.

Harris was represented by Trevor Maringking, while Yong and SAPP were represented by Shim Mong Seng.

Yong, who is also a former Sabah chief minister, had called for a fresh investigation into the crash in 2010 after the former Petronas chairperson Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah revealed that he was in the same plane as Fuad and was seated next to him.

Prior to departure from Labuan to Kota Kinabalu however, Razaleigh said Fuad’s then deputy Harris had insisted that he took another plane to follow him to inspect a cattle-rearing project in Pulau Bangi, and he was thus saved from the plane crash.

Yong made the call for an investigation in response, insinuating that Harris had a hand in assassinating Fuad.

Meanwhile in the court decision today, the court found that Yong had failed to take sufficient steps to verify his claims, and rejected Yong’s argument that he had verified Razaleigh statements.

Instead, the court ruled that Yong was not merely repeating Razaleigh’s statements, but had embellished it.

Harris filed the suit against Yong on July 23, 2010. The Kota Kinabalu High Court ruled in his favour, but this was overturned by the Court of Appeal in April 2014.