Last Updated: 11:56am, Feb 28, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 28): The Kuala Lumpur High Court today found that Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris is pro-Umno blogger Papagomo and awarded Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim RM850,000 in total damages.

Judicial Commissioner Rosilah Yop who delivered her judgement in chambers decided this in Anwar's defamation RM100 million defamation suit against Muhammad Azri.

Muhammad Azri was accused of producing explicit images and derogatory statements about Anwar being intimate with another man in the blog, www.papagomo.com, on March 16 and March 20.

Speaking to reporters after the decision was delivered, Anwar's council, N Surendran said that his team felt vindicated as the allegations of homosexuality was "nothing but lies".

The PKR vice-president added: "The damages awarded is unprecedented. RM800,000 is awarded for general damages and RM50,000 is awarded in cost.

"Muhammad Azri has committed perjury on oath as he denied that he was Papagomo. We will take necessary action on that".

He added that this was among one of the highest cost awarded in recent times.

Second High Court judgment to identify Muhammad Azri as Papagomo

This is the second High Court decision which identified Muhammad Azri as Papagomo despite his denials.

On Sept 13, 2013 Wan Muhammad was identified by Judicial Commissioner Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera as Papagomo and ordered him to pay RM200,000 in general damages and RM300,000 in exemplary damages to businessman Abdul Razak Mohd Noor in the latter's defamation suit against the blogger.

However, the decision of a court case cannot be adopted in another court case when in trial as Wan Muhammad is still appealing the matter.

Wan Azri still denies that he is Papagomo, continues to slam Anwar despite court injunction.

Speaking to reporters later, Muhammad Azri still denied that he was the infamous blogger and added that from the get go, the court has been "bias" against him.

"From the start of the trial it was clear that the court was bias when they denied my lawyers from bringing in a witness to debunk Mohd Fauzi's testimony. Mohd Fauzi has given several different testimony for the various court cases.

"There is no concrete proof that I am Papagomo. It is the same as what Anwar said (when the pictures of him in the explicit images was released), 'It looks like me but it's no me'," he said.

Despite a court injunction to not defame Anwar, Muhammad Azri said that Anwar was a "serial liar who should repent".

Muhammad Azri's council, Jasbeer Singh said that he will appeal the decision and apply for a stay order against paying the damages.

He also disputed Surendran that the court had identified Muhammad Azri as Papagomo.

"The court only said that the cost awarded was such and such. It did not say that there was undisputed proof," he said.

The written judgement will only be available at a later date.

Anwar was not present in court today as he is currently in Japan.

The short two-day trial last month saw testimonies from three people. Anwar himself took the stand to testify against Papagomo. Another blogger, Perisik Rakyat, Mohd Fauzi Mohd Azmi who testified for the plaintiff identified that Muhammad Azri was Papagomo as the latter identified himself as the pro-Umno blogger in a bloggers conference in 2009.

Muhammad Azri was the sole witness for the defence's case. The defence failed to subpoena another witness who would have testified in favour of Muhammad Azri.

Most of Wan Muhammad's cross-examination centered around whether he was indeed Papagomo. He also went to the extend to deny that he was in a photograph produced in court as evidence.

He said he was a former traffic policeman who was investigated and jailed in 2004 on corruption charges. He is now the CEO and Editor of KL Pos Media & Production Sdn Bhd which produces Rakyat News. He said that he did blog but blogged in malayright.blogspot.com.

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