The Federal Court has postponed the hearing of the appeal by Raub Australia Gold Mining (RAGM) in a defamation suit which was won by Bukit Koman villager Hue Shieh Lee.

This is pending Malaysiakini's leave to appeal to the apex court over another suit by RAGM against the news portal.

When the gold mine's appeal came up for hearing today, its lawyer Cecil Abraham told the court that a video in Hue's case was the same one tendered in Malaysiakini's case, arguing that both cases may affect each other.

Cecil requested the court to postpone the hearing until the Federal Court decides whether to grant the news portal leave to appeal.  

However, Hue's lawyer Gurdial Singh Nijar disagreed with the request for postponement and expressed his hope for the hearing to proceed as scheduled.

The five-member Federal Court bench, led by Chief Judge of Malaya Ahmad Maarop, decided to postpone the case and fixed July 12 for case management.

The other judges were Justices Ramly Ali, Azahar Mohamed, Aziah Ali and Alizatul Khair Othman.

Gurdial later told reporters that a hearing date would be fixed on July 12, when the matter comes up for case management.

He said the Federal Court will make its decision whether to grant leave to Malaysiakini on July 11.

'Worried about losing the case'

Asked to comment, Hue said she was disappointed with the court's decision to postpone the hearing and is worried about losing the case.

"If we lose, we may need to raise funds from the public. We are not willing to use the funds raised to pay RAGM.

"Regardless of the outcome of this suit, there has been damage to the environment and in the end, we are the losers," she added.

RAGM filed a defamation suit against Hue in 2013. She was among several activists who were campaigning against the firm's gold mine in Bukit Koman, Pahang, which purportedly used cyanide as part of the gold extraction process. 

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur ruled against RAGM in May last year, and the Court of Appeal dismissed the gold mine's appeal five months later. RAGM then filed an appeal to the Federal Court. 

The gold mine's suit against Malaysiakini was dismissed by the High Court in May 2016.

However, the Court of Appeal reversed the judgment and ordered Malaysiakini to pay a sum of RM200,000 in damages and RM150,000 in legal costs to RAGM.