PUTRAJAYA (Jan 17): The Court of Appeal (COA) has fixed Feb 7 to give its decision on an appeal involving Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar having to pay Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim RM150,000 for defaming him 13 years ago.
The three-judge COA bench set the date on Monday after having heard submissions from lawyers representing Khairy and Anwar via Zoom proceedings.
The bench was led by Datuk Lee Swee Seng together with Datuk Darryl Goon Siew Chye and Datuk Ghazali Cha, who rounded off the quorum.
Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah was representing Khairy while Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram was representing Anwar.
Anwar filed the lawsuit against Khairy on March 7, 2008, seeking RM100 million in damages from the latter following a political ceramah in Lembah Pantai, where Khairy used the phrase "main belakang", which suggested the now opposition chief was a homosexual and a person of low moral character.
Sri Ram told the bench that while Khairy had previously contended that the comments he made were not due to Anwar’s sodomy allegation, the crowd at the ceramah had taken it in that context.
Khairy claimed through Shafee, in a previous hearing, that he had made the comments in reference to Anwar’s then-opposition pact with PAS and DAP in the build-up to the GE12 at the ceramah, and not Anwar’s sodomy allegations.
Shafee had argued previously that the speech Khairy had given was a humorous speech and the comments he had made which resulted in this defamation suit were to merely highlight a “marriage of convenience” in terms of the opposition’s political alliance.
However, Sri Ram contended that the High Court, in its judgment against Khairy, was correct in stating that those attending the speech in 2008 were UMNO supporters, and that they had understood the “main belakang” comment made by Khairy as referring to Anwar’s sodomy allegations.
“Khairy was addressing a crowd that had understood or had taken to understand the context of reference to Anwar’s sodomy allegation following the Federal Court ruling in 2004 which overturned his sodomy 1 conviction,” he said.
Sri Ram said the reaction from the mostly UMNO supporting crowd was a derisory one against Anwar as they had taken the comments by Khairy to refer to Anwar’s sodomy allegations.
Shafee, in his reply, then alluded to Anwar’s name more often than not being linked with alleged homosexuality after being questioned by Lee.
Lee: So you’re saying if a survey were to be done at the cross-section of people at the Cheras MRT station, and the names of a few politicians of political parties were mentioned there including the respondent (Anwar), and then the question was asked, which of these are more often associated with the act of homosexuality, everyone will take the respondents name?
Shafee: I think so Yang Arif, there is nobody else.
Lee: That is not a fault of your client; [but this] is the perception of the people?
Shafee: Exactly.
It was reported that on Sept 29, 2017, Anwar won his civil suit against Khairy, and the former Umno Youth chief was then ordered by the High Court to pay the damages, with another RM60,000 as costs for remarks he made in 2008.
Khairy then appealed against the decision made by the High Court, which refused to allow him to amend his statement of defence after the trial, and subsequently found him liable for defamation.
The COA then dismissed Khairy's appeal based on the technicality that he only filed a single notice of appeal, which Anwar's lawyers argued was defective and should be dismissed.
However, on Dec 15, 2020 the Federal Court had allowed Khairy's appeal for his case to be reheard on its full merits at the COA.
The bench, led by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, unanimously allowed the appeal from Khairy, who is also Rembau member of Parliament (MP), and ordered Anwar to pay RM30,000 as costs.
The other judges on the bench were Datuk P Nalini, Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim and Datuk Rhozariah Bujang.