PUTRAJAYA, Aug 23 — The Court of Appeal has postponed the hearing of an appeal by Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor against a High Court’s order for him to pay RM50,000 in damages to Pokok Sena member of Parliament Datuk Mahfuz Omar for defamation.
Justice Datuk Lee Swee Seng, who led a three-man bench, informed counsels in the appeal, in online proceedings, that the bench could not hear the appeal today as they have a meeting at 3pm today.
Prior to that, the bench heard several other appeal cases and it went on until 2pm today. The bench had to hear two other cases today, including Muhammad Sanusi’s appeal.
Justice Lee, who presided with Justices Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, then ordered for case management to be held tomorrow to fix a new hearing date.
On November 8 last year, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur ordered Muhammad Sanusi to pay RM50,000 in damages to Mahfuz after allowing the latter’s defamation lawsuit.
Judicial Commissioner Datuk Mohd Arief Emran Arifin also ordered Muhammad Sanusi to write an apology to the plaintiff (Mahfuz) on the former’s Facebook page and to pay him RM15,000 in legal costs.
The court also issued a restraining order for Muhammad Sanusi or his agents from publishing defamatory words against Mahfuz in the future.
Mahfuz filed the suit against Muhammad Sanusi on October 9, 2019 over a post made by the latter on his Facebook account on July 30 the same year, which linked Mahfuz as the Pokok Sena Member of Parliament to the transfer of a Sports Toto outlet to the area.
Mahfuz also claimed that Muhammad Sanusi posted a seven minute and 57 second video on his Facebook account on July 27, 2019, which showed a group of individuals protesting the opening of a Sports Toto outlet in Pokok Sena, while holding a banner bearing the plaintiff’s name.
Lawyers Yusfarizal Yussoff and Mohd Faizi Che Abu represented Muhammad Sanusi, while Mahfuz was represented by counsel Noorazmir Zakaria. — Bernama
