KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — DAP’s Seputeh MP Teresa Kok has obtained a court order to seize and sell the contents of Umno leader Datuk Seri Jamal Md Yunos’s house, after the latter failed to pay RM50,000 for her legal costs after losing in a RM300,000 defamation lawsuit to her.

Kok’s lawyer Datuk Sankara Nair told Malay Mail that his client had on September 13, 2024 obtained the court order — otherwise known as the writ of seizure and sale — against Jamal, in relation to the High Court’s order on July 26, 2022 for him to pay the legal costs.

"This is because Datuk Seri Jamal has not paid the said cost despite our demand,” he said.

He told Malay Mail that the court order "is to seize the contents in the house that belongs to Jamal only”.

Today, Sankara clarified to Malay Mail that the court order to seize and sell contents in Jamal’s property was not for the damages of RM300,000, saying that this has been "fully paid” to Kok and that it is instead over the unpaid legal costs.

Sankara said the court’s bailiff Abu Sopian Zakaria had this morning made an attempt to execute the court order to seize contents belonging to Jamal in his house at Ampang Jaya in Ampang, Selangor, but that this was unsuccessful as no one was present there.

Sankara said the next step would be for Kok to apply for a court order for forced entry of Jamal’s house, to enable the execution of the court order to seize and sell contents belonging to him in the property.

The lawyer also said this court matter would undergo further case management at a date to be determined.

In 2017, Kok filed the defamation lawsuit against Jamal over the latter’s accusations that she had allegedly misappropriated Yayasan Warisan Anak Selangor (Yawas) funds under the Skim Mesra Usia Emas initiative.

The High Court had in 2022 ruled that Jamal had defamed Kok and ordered him to pay RM300,000 in compensation and RM50,000 in legal costs to her, while the Court of Appeal in March 2024 upheld the High Court’s decision.

On July 30 this year, the Federal Court rejected Jamal’s application for leave to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision, which meant that the RM300,000 he had deposited for the case would be paid to Kok.

* Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article contained an error which has since been rectified.