PUTRAJAYA (Dec 12): The Court of Appeal (COA) has allowed Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah's appeal in her defamation suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown and two others.
In a unanimous decision on Tuesday, a three-member appellate court bench said that the statement in Rewcastle-Brown's book titled The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposé linking the sultanah to fugitive financier Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) was defamatory.
The bench chaired by Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail and consisting of COA judges Mohamed Zaini Mazlan and Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli awarded damages of RM300,000 and cost of RM120,000.
The damages are to be paid jointly by all the defendants, which include Gerakbudaya Enterprise publisher Chong Ton Sin and printer Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd.
Prevailing circumstances in 2018 needed to be taken into account
Azhahari, who read out the decision, said that the bench agreed with the appellant's submissions that over-analysis of specific words should be avoided, and an ordinary reader's comprehension of the impugned statement ought to be taken into account.
The panel said that the High Court had considered extrinsic evidence or the dictionary meaning of specific words in the impugned statement, and noted that this was not the correct approach in determining the statement's "natural and ordinary" meaning.
The panel noted that the law does not confine the statement to its "literal meaning", but also considers the "context" in which it was used.
Azhahari said that the book was published in August 2018, about five months after the 14th general election, where 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and Jho Low's connection to the scandal was a heated campaign topic.
"The defamatory part of the statement can be seen in the allegations that the [sultanah] was said to have supported Jho Low to be appointed to the advisory position in Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA)," the judge said in reference to 1MDB's predecessor.
The panel was of the view that a reasonable person, using their common sense of the prevailing circumstances at that time, would derive the meaning as pleaded by the sultanah — that she used her position to help Jho Low get the TIA position, that she had influence in the state administration, and that she was involved in alleged corrupt practices.
The impugned statement reads: “Jho was also friendly with a key player in Terengganu, the wife of the sultan, whose acquiescence was needed to set up the fund, and he later cited her support as having been crucial to his obtaining the advisory position."
Azhahari also said that Rewcastle-Brown failed to show that the impugned statement was true.
A Vishnu Kumar and Datuk Mohd Haziq Pillay represented the sultanah, while the defendants were represented by Americk Sidhu and Mervyn Lai.
The sultanah was appealing against then judicial commissioner Dr Johan Lee Kien How @ Mohd Johan Lee's decision on Oct 31, where the High Court dismissed her suit on the grounds that the statement in question was not defamatory, although there was a case of mistaken identity, where Rewcastle-Brown had mistaken Sultanah Nur Zahirah for her sister-in-law, Tunku Datuk Rahimah Sultan Mahmud.
The court awarded RM80,000 in costs. In her November 2018 suit, the sultanah sought, among others, general damages of RM100 million each from the defendants.