KUALA LUMPUR (May 25): The High Court has today directed blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin to pay former finance minister Lim Guan Eng a global sum of RM600,000 as aggravated and general damages for defamation.

Judicial commissioner Datuk Mohd Arief Imran Arifin announced his decision via video conferencing at 4pm, where he also ordered Raja Petra (better known as RPK), who operates the Malaysia Today website, to pay RM10,000 in costs.

This was confirmed by Lim's counsel Simon Murali to theedgemarkets.com.

Lim, who is also Bagan member of Parliament and former Penang chief minister, had in February last year obtained a default judgement against the blogger for a series of articles over the RM6.3 billion Penang undersea tunnel project alleging corruption in the infrastructure project.

Lim, who is also the Air Putih assemblyman, is said to have sought RM20 million from RPK when he told the court last month the quantum he was seeking following judgement entered on the blogger as it had damaged his reputation.

He filed the suit on Sept 6, 2019 against RPK over a series of "From the MACC files" articles that appeared in both English and Bahasa Malaysia carried in the Malaysia Today portal between Feb 24 to March 15, 2019.

Lim said the articles over MACC's investigation on the alleged corruption in the infrastructure project are defamatory to his reputation.

The DAP secretary-general filed an application for a judgement in default after RPK failed to respond to the notice Lim had placed in three newspapers on Feb 10, 2020.

Today’s decision notwithstanding, Lim is scheduled to face his graft trial at the Sessions Court beginning June 8 to 11, over the same project.