Anwar Ibrahim ordered to pay RM100,000 costs to Anifah Aman

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been ordered by the Court of Appeal here to pay RM100,000 costs after he lost his appeal on a defamation lawsuit against Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman.

A three-man panel comprising Justices Datuk Umi Kalthum Abdul Majid, Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli and Datuk Hasnah Mohammed Hashim allowed Anifah's appeal for a higher amount of legal costs for the court proceedings at the High Court.

The panel awarded RM100,000 costs to Anifah for the court proceedings in the High Court and in the Court of Appeal.

Anifah's counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah requested for RM100,000 costs for High Court proceedings as he said the trial went on for eight to nine days and they had to call several witnesses to testify in the trial.

The High Court only awarded RM20,000 costs.

He also asked for another RM50,000 costs for proceedings in the Court of Appeal after the panel rejected Anwar's appeal against a High Court's dismissal of his lawsuit over Anifah's statement at a media conference in Washington, United States (US), in 2009.

Anwar's lawyer, Razlan Hadri Zulkifli contended that it was the discretion of the High Court judge to give costs, adding the judge's decision should not be disturbed.

Earlier, Umi Kalthum ruled that the former opposition leader's appeal did not have merits.

Anwar, 69, sued Anifah, claiming the minister's statement during a joint-press conference with then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department in Washington had tarnished his image.

The statement was then published via the website of the US State Department on May 14, 2009, and two days later, Malaysia's The Star newspaper had published an article based on Anifah's statement at the same media conference.

On Oct 29, last year, the High Court dismissed Anwar's defamation suit with costs after it ruled the High Court in Malaysia did not have jurisdiction over cases outside Malaysia.

Anwar, who was former Permatang Pauh member of parliament is currently serving a five-year jail sentence for sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in June 2008.

The Federal Court has reserved judgment on his application for a review over his conviction.

Outside the court, Razlan Hadri told reporters that he would take instructions from his client on whether to take the matter to the Federal Court. -- Bernama