THE Federal Court has dismissed an appeal by the National Feedlot Corp Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) and its chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Salleh Ismail in their defamation suit against former Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli over alleged misuse of government funds.
On Thursday (April 21), a three-member bench of the apex court, led by Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed, dismissed the appeal and ordered costs of RM70,000 to be awarded to Rafizi.
“He is entitled to express freely on a matter of public interest,” said Azahar, who delivered the unanimous judgment today.
Azahar further ruled that Rafizi had successfully established that the statement he made was a fair comment and added that Rafizi, therefore, could not be liable for damages for defamation.
Further, Azahar said the High Court had made a finding that Rafizi was not motivated by malice when making the alleged defamatory statements.
There were sufficient substratum facts to warrant Rafizi to make the statements, he continued, adding that it was also the finding of the High Court that Rafizi had an honest belief that his allegations were true and that he was performing a public duty in agitating for greater accountability for public funds.
“In all the above circumstances, this appeal must be dismissed. I agree with the order of the Court of Appeal, though on substantially different grounds. We award costs in the sum of RM70,000 to the respondent (Rafizi),” Azahar was quoted as saying by The Edge Markets.
Azahar added that the decision was unanimous as he noted that Justices Datuk Zabariah Yusof and Puan Seri Zaleha Yusof, who joined him on the Federal Court bench, agreed with his judgement.
“Justices Zabariah and Zaleha have read my judgement in draft and have expressed their agreement with it, and have agreed to adopt the same as the judgement of this court,” Azahar said.
NFCorp and Salleh filed the defamation suit against Rafizi following the latter’s press conference in 2012, during which he alleged the company had used a RM250 mil government loan as collateral to purchase commercial properties in KL Eco City.
In October 2016, the High Court found Rafizi guilty of defaming Salleh and NFCorp and ordered him to pay RM150,000 in damages to the first and RM50,000 to the latter.
However, on May 13, 2019, a three-member Court of Appeal bench led by Justice Datuk Dr Hamid Sultan Abu Backer ruled that Rafizi’s appeal had merits and ordered the damages and RM100,000 in costs paid by Rafizi to Salleh and NFCorp previously be returned.
Rafizi was also awarded costs of RM110,000.
On Sept 24, 2020, the Federal Court granted leave to NFCorp and Salleh to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision to dismiss the defamation suit.
Money will be given to public
Meanwhile, Rafizi said that the money awarded to him in the defamation suit will be returned to the public in the form of scholarships and aid.
“The Federal Court today decided in my favour in the suit brought by NFCorp against me. The series of NFCorp cases started in 2011 and have been ongoing until 2022,” he said in a Twitter post.
“There were three cases against me, I have won them all. The money from the cases will be returned to the public in the form of scholarships and modest aid.” – April 21, 2022
