KUALA LUMPUR – The High Court here today ordered former Penang Deputy Chief Minister 2 P. Ramasamy to pay more than RM1 million in damages for defaming Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik who is from India.
This followed Judge Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz's decision in allowing two suits by Zakir.
The judge also ordered the defendant (Ramasamy) to pay the said amount to the plaintiff (Zakir) within thirty days from today.
Zakir had filed two suits on this matter respectively in October and December 2019 on the allegation that Ramasamy had issued defamatory statements involving the independent preacher, besides linking Zakir to the LTTE issue.
Ramasamy attended court today while Zakir joined online proceedings as he is in Nigeria for a talk.
Lawyer Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader, who represented Zakir, told the court that his client could not attend because he is in Nigeria for a lecture until November 5.
Therefore, Zakir attended the proceedings through the Zoom application.
In her judgement, judge Hayatul Akmal ruled that Dr Zakir had succeeded in discharging his burden on defamation while the evidence of Ramasamy was primarily untenable to negate these two suits against him.
"I take the evidence by Ramasamy in his defence with an abundance of caution. I am unpersuaded by his arguments.
"It is my considered view that the evidence of Ramasamy is primarily untenable to negate these two suits against him," she was quoted as saying by Bernama.
"In my considered determination, Dr Zakir has satisfied three essential elements of the tort of defamation. Looking at the background and complete facts of the present case, the demeanour of Ramasamy in the context in which it was issued, five statements are undoubtedly defamatory that were actuated by malice and anger on the part of Ramasamy towards Dr Zakir.
"Those impugned statements were personal attacks angled to disparage, ridicule and lower Dr Zakir in the eyes of the general public," she said.
The damages include RM1 million for general damages, RM100,000 for compensatory damages, RM100,000 for aggravated damages, and RM250,000 for exemplary damages.
The judge ordered Ramasamy to pay RM70,000 in costs to Zakir. At the end of today's proceedings, the judge also ordered Ramasamy to make a public apology to Zakir but Ramasamy’s counsel Razlan Hadri Zulkifli informed the court they would file an application to stay the need for the defendant to apologise to Zakir, pending their appeal to the Court of Appeal.
On October 16, 2019, Zakir sued Ramasamy for allegedly issuing defamatory statements, which were uploaded on social media sites and news portals between 2016 and 2019.
In the statement of claim, he claimed that on April 10, 2016, Ramasamy had defamed him by calling him an unsavoury name on the defendant's Facebook page.
The defendant had also issued a defamatory statement against the plaintiff on October 1, 2017, when an article about the preacher was published on the Free Malaysia Today (FMT) news portal that day.
Zakir also claimed that on August 11, 2019, the defendant had manipulated his speech during an event organised by the Kelantan government, and it was also published on the FMT portal on the same day.
Ramasamy, on August 20, 2019, was alleged to have issued a defamatory statement against the plaintiff, published by international media portal India Today.
In December 2019, Zakir again sued Ramasamy after alleging that the defendant defamed him, through comments posted on The Malaysian Insight portal on the LTTE issue. – The Vibss, November 2, 202
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