PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has upheld a High Court decision that Muhammad Azri Wan Deris is indeed the controversial blogger Papagomo.

Muhammad Azri had appealed the decision by judicial commissioner Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, who also ordered the blogger to pay RM500,000 to businessman Abdul Razak Mohd Noor in damages for defamation.

The three-man Court of Appeal, led by Justice Datuk Mohamad Arif Md Yusof, yesterday “affirmed” the High Court’s decision. However, it reduced the quantum for damages to RM300,000. Also on the panel were judges Datuk Mah Weng Kwai and Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim.

Mohamad Arif maintained general damages of RM200,000, but reduced exemplary damages, which was rewarded by the High Court, from RM300,000 to RM100,000. “RM300,000 is off the norm,” he explained.

The panel also awarded costs of RM150,000 to be paid to Abdul Razak.

Muhammad Azri has continuously denied that he is the pro-Umno blogger despite the court cases against him. Besides Vazeer Alam’s decision, more recently on Dec 28, judicial commissioner Rosilah Yop also identified that Muhammad Azri is Papagomo in opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s defamation suit against the former.

Businessman Abdul Razak had filed a RM10 million suit on Jan 26, 2012 claiming that Muhammad Azri had published the defamatory article on his blog. He alleged that the article wrongfully indicated that he earned “millions” of ringgit when he obtained a contract for the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

During submissions, Muhammad Azri, who was represented by lawyers Arief Emran Arifin and Wan Muhammad Amin among others, argued that Vazeer Alam only relied on an “unbelievable” witness, another blogger Mohd Fauzi Mohd Azmi, for his judgment. Mohd Fauzi is blogger Perisik Rakyat, who took a picture of Muhammad Azri during a 2009 bloggers’ conference in Subang where the latter introduced himself as Papagomo.

“The evidence is circumstantial. There is not a direct link. The High Court [Judicial Commissioner] made his decision based on the fact that Muhammad Azri had introduced himself as Papagomo,” argued Wan Muhammad.

He went on to argue that Abdul Razak could have produced more evidence. When the panel questioned what more evidence was needed, however, Wan Muhammad was  unable to answer.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 28, 2014.