KUALA LUMPUR – Former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has announced he will remove social media posts and file an appeal after the High Court ruled he must pay RM1.35 million in damages to DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng for defamation regarding the revocation of Yayasan Albukhary’s tax exemption.
Earlier today, Judicial Commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain delivered her judgment in Lim’s defamation suit against Muhyiddin, finding that the former finance minister had failed to defend the case.
In a Facebook post, Muhyiddin expressed his disappointment with the ruling, saying that he believed his comments were not defamatory, and confirmed that his legal team would appeal.
“I have a good defence to the claim and (found) that the amount that was awarded by the court was excessive.
“(However) In compliance with the decision of the court, I will be removing the postings that are the subject matter of this action from my Facebook and social media accounts,” he said.
Roz Mawar, in her judgement, said Muhyiddin had resources at his disposal to verify whether his understanding was correct on facts.
However, Muhyiddin did not do so, she added, and had continued to make further defamatory statements against Lim after the latter had brought to his attention the falsity of such allegations in the defamatory statement, Bernama reported.
“The learned counsel for the defendant (Muhyiddin) submitted that the language used in the defamatory statements was not inflammatory. This court is unable to accept such submissions as the context of the defamatory statements were in their natural and ordinary meaning provoked incitement of racial sentiments.
“Furthermore, now that the evidence has been adduced at trial, there was no justification to make such defamatory statements. This court finds that the defendant has failed to prove the truth of his allegations,” the judicial commissioner was quoted as saying.
Roz Mawar further said the court found Muhyiddin’s defence of fair comment also failed for several compelling reasons.
On March 27, 2023, Lim filed a lawsuit against Muhyiddin for allegedly making three defamatory statements on Facebook on March 9, 11, and 12, 2023, involving him in the tax exemption issue. Reports on the matter were subsequently published in several newspapers and news portals.
Lim, who was also the former Penang chief minister, claimed that the defamatory statements implied he had abused his position and power by authorising or directing the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) to impose taxes and penalties on the charitable foundation, despite being exempted. – November 8, 2024