KUALA LUMPUR (May 19): The Court of Appeal (COA) has reserved its decision on former Baling member of Parliament (MP) Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim’s appeal of his defamation suit against DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng concerning the Penang undersea tunnel project.
After listening to submissions from parties for close to an hour on Friday (May 19), a three-member panel led by appellate court judge Datuk Azizah Nawawi said they needed more time to deliberate on the matter. The others on the bench were Datuk Seri Mariana Yahya and Datuk Azimah Omar.
Following this, case management has been set on May 24, to possibly set a decision date.
Abdul Azeez, 56, is appealing the decision by the Penang High Court, which dismissed his defamation suit against Lim, 62.
The High Court ruled in December 2020 that the former Lembaga Tabung Haji chairman failed to prove his claims against Lim, a former Penang chief minister.
It was reported that the Kedah Regional Development Authority (Keda) chairman sued Lim in 2018, claiming that the latter made defamatory statements linking Abdul Azeez to payment of RM3 million in consultation fees by Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd, the developer of the state’s RM6.34 billion undersea tunnel project.
Lim made the statement during two separate events in February 2018, which were later on, uploaded onto his Facebook page.
Earlier, during submissions, Porres Royan appeared for Abdul Azeez as his counsel and argued that the High Court judge “failed to appreciate” the fact that Lim did not adduce any proof that Abdul Azeez had received the said sum during the trial.
Lim in his statements had cited news reports regarding Zenith’s notice of demand to Azeez in February 2018 to recover the sum. However, on Friday, Porres pointed out that Abdul Azeez had made a police report three days after receiving the notice, denying the developer’s allegations against him.
The counsel argued that the entire factual basis of Lim’s allegations was untrue and the defence of justification — which was upheld at the High Court — could not stand.
Lim’s counsel Datuk N Mureli, among others, argued that the statements made were not defamatory and did not carry the intended meaning as claimed.
He said the statements — which must be taken as a whole — targeted the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over its perceived inconsistent actions and some political parties, not Abdul Azeez.
The counsel also argued that Lim’s statements were fair comments, as they pertained to matters of public interest, as there were “live” issues surrounding the undersea tunnel project at that material time in early 2018.
“As [then] chief minister [Lim] is saying, he has a duty to raise these matters and to take MACC [...] to task, as these are live issues,” Mureli said.
During proceedings on Friday, Azeez was also represented by Craig Ho, while Felix Lim also appeared for Lim.
Separately, Lim, also Bagan MP and a former minister of finance, is on trial at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on graft charges involving the same project.
Lim is charged with two counts of dishonest misappropriation of property by releasing two plots of state-owned land to two companies.
Lim is also accused of soliciting, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur in March 2011, a 10% cut in profits from the undersea tunnel project from Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, a director of Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd — a special purpose vehicle of Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG) — to aid the group to secure the project.