KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 — The High Court in Alor Setar, Kedah has issued a court order to temporarily stop former Kedah menteri besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor from repeating alleged defamatory remarks against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim regarding the latter’s royal pardon, while waiting for Anwar’s defamation lawsuit against Sanusi to be heard.
Anwar’s lawyer Datuk Sankara Nair confirmed this, saying that High Court judge Mahazan Mat Taib had yesterday heard and granted Anwar’s application for the interim injunction — which is the court order that will stop Sanusi from making such remarks pending the lawsuit’s hearing.
“The effect of the interim Injunction is that Sanusi is restrained from repeating, uttering and publishing statements at, inter alia, any ceramahs, events, interviews, postings or publication in the media against the PM,” Sankara said in a statement today.
Sankara said the court order was served on Sanusi’s lawyers today at 12.30pm.
Sankara said Sanusi will be subject to proceedings for contempt of court if he does repeat those alleged defamatory remarks, with the lawyer arguing that repeating those remarks would amount to a contempt of court.
“Sanusi is therefore given a stern warning to abide by the terms of the Injunction or else, he shall swiftly face all the appurtenant legal consequences,” Sankara said.
A copy of the interim injunction was made available to Malay Mail.
The court order said Sanusi — whether through himself, his employees or his agents — cannot repeat or publish or cause to be publish those alleged defamatory remarks in any manner including on social media, online or offline platforms until the defamation lawsuit has been heard or until the High Court’s further orders.
The court order also stated that Sanusi has to comply with the interim injunction immediately after it has been delivered or served to him.
According to Sankara, the High Court has yet to fix a hearing date for this defamation lawsuit.
Prior to Anwar’s successful obtaining of the interim injunction yesterday, Sankara claimed that Sanusi had repeated similar defamatory remarks against Anwar at two ceramahs, namely the “Jelajah PN Best Negeri Sembilan” on March 18, 2023 in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan and the “Jelajah Selangor Baharu-Selayang” on July 11, 2023 at Selayang, Selangor.
Sankara said Sanusi had repeated such remarks in relation to Anwar’s previous two criminal trials, despite being fully aware of the pending defamation lawsuit filed by Anwar in December last year and despite Sanusi having lawyers to represent him.
On December 13, 2022, Tambun MP Anwar filed the defamation lawsuit against Sanusi in the High Court in Alor Setar over the latter’s remarks in a November 13, 2022 election campaign speech.
Sanusi was alleged to have made the defamatory remarks in November 2022 during the “PN Best Tambun Tour” while supporting Perikatan Nasional’s Tambun candidate Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu.
