KUALA LUMPUR – DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has been awarded RM600,000 in damages after winning a defamation suit blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.
Kuala Lumpur High Court judicial commissioner Mohd Arief Emran Arifin also ordered the blogger to pay RM10,000 in costs to Lim, reported Malaysiakini.
The defamation suit was linked to 10 articles written by Raja Petra on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigation into alleged corruption in the RM6.3 billion Penang undersea tunnel project.
Lim was seeking RM21 million while on February 28 last year, the high court granted a judgment in default (JID) to Lim.
Malaysiakini reported that the court also ordered Raja Petra to pay 5% interest on the damages awarded from the date of filing of the suit – September 6, 2019 – until the date of full settlement.
In a separate case, Lim will be facing charges of soliciting gratification to help a company to secure the Penang undersea tunnel project, in his capacity as the then chief minister.
He is alleged to have sought 10% of the profit to be made by the company from Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, who is a director at Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd.
The case is set to begin on June 8 at the high court here. – The Vibes, May 25, 2021
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