PUTRAJAYA (June 4): The Court of Appeal has fixed June 18 to hear former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s appeal over a 2024 High Court decision that had found him to have defamed former finance minister Lim Guan Eng and that had ordered Muhyiddin to pay Lim RM1.35 million in damages.
The appellate bench also fixed the same day to hear Lim’s cross-appeal over interests with regard to the judgement.
The dates were separately confirmed by Lim’s counsel Guok Ngek Seong of Messrs Guok Partnership and Muhyiddin’s counsel Chetan Jethwani of Messrs Chetan Jethwani & Co, following case managements on Thursday before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Norkamilah Aziz and senior assistant registrar Nuur Fatimahtul Zuhra Khairuddin.
In November 2024, High Court judge Roz Mawar Rozain had found Muhyiddin to have defamed the DAP chairman, over not giving tax breaks for Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary’s charity foundation Yayasan Albukhary.
Roz Mawar had ruled that Lim had proven his case against Muhyiddin on a balance of probabilities.
“This has been a case of considerable public importance, involving, as it does, two prominent political figures, and touching on sensitive issues of race and religion in our multicultural society. The evidence has demonstrated clearly that the allegations made by the defendant were not only false, but potentially harmful to our nation’s social fabric,” Roz Mawar had ruled.
The judge awarded RM1.05 million in total for general damages over the three statements, RM150,000 in aggravated damages, and another RM150,000 in exemplary damages.
Besides this, Roz Mawar had ordered Muhyiddin to pay RM50,000 costs and to retract the three defamatory statements.
The court in December 2024 then granted Muhyiddin a conditional stay from paying the full sum and directed the Pagoh MP to pay RM400,000 to Lim by end-2024, and the remaining sum of RM1 million before Jan 27, 2025.
However, Lim’s counsel filed a bankruptcy notice against Muhyiddin for failing to pay RM1.402 million (including RM50,000 in costs and allocator of RM2,000) as ordered by the High Court on Nov 8, 2024.
Muhyiddin then paid the whole sum on Jan 25, 2025, resulting in Lim appealing for interests.
Muhyiddin’s comments, made in March 2023 on social media, alleged that Lim had withdrawn tax breaks for the Islamic philanthropic organisation.
In filing the suit against Muhyiddin, Lim claimed that the statements insinuated that he had abused his position and power as the then-finance minister by authorising the Inland Revenue Board to impose taxes and penalties on a charitable organisation, when it should not be taxed.
The statements, Lim claimed, also implied that he was racist and was intentionally targeting the Islamic organisation.