PUTRAJAYA (Nov 2): The Court of Appeal upheld a High Court decision which dismissed a RM10 million defamation suit brought by former attorney general (AG) Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali against DAP veteran Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang over an article Lim published in 2019 regarding the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal. 

A three-judge bench made up of Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who chaired it, Datuk M Gunalan and Datuk Azmi Ariffin made the unanimous decision to quash Apandi’s appeal. 

Hadhariah, in reading out her judgment, said that the High Court judge who dismissed Apandi’s suit had not erred in law or in facts when dismissing the suit. 

She also said that Lim had successfully raised the defence of justification and fair comment to ward off the suit. 

Hadhariah said that there was no merit in the appeal and that it was dismissed with cost. 

She then ordered Apandi to pay Lim RM100,000. 

Lawyer Rueben Mathiavaranam appeared for Apandi in court while Lim was represented by Sangeet Kaur Deo.

Then High Court judge Datuk Azimah Omar (now a Court of Appeal judge) had dismissed the suit last year. 

The suit revolved around Lim’s articles on the 1MDB scandal that were published in 2019. Apandi claimed that the articles had implied that he abused or neglected his responsibilities as AG at the time.

Azimah ruled that the 1MDB debacle highlighted in Lim’s article was a matter of national interest and that it was within the duty of any member of the public, let alone a parliamentarian, to voice out one's dismay, especially after all channels of complaint were exhausted.

She also said that the public had absolute right to know of Apandi's "actions or inactions", which "directly or indirectly" lent a hand in covering up the 1MDB scandal and protecting the known personalities involved.

She also found Apandi to be disinterested under cross-examination about explaining his acceptance of a clarification by Najib that the huge amount of money in his bank account was a donation from a Saudi prince.