Appeals Court sets aside Ibrahim Ali's conviction, jail term, fine for contempt of court

"Although I have served a day's jail, I have accepted it in good faith," said Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali whose conviction, one-day jail term and RM20,000 fine for contempt of court was set aside by the Court of Appeal here today.

"Thanks to God, because all the while I knew I was not guilty," he told reporters after the court's verdict.

Ibrahim said he had been held twice under the Internal Security Act.

A three-member panel led by Justice Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail allowed Ibrahim's appeal to overturn the decision of the High Court which had found him guilty of contempt of court over a website post against retired High Court judge Datuk V. T. Singham who presided over a defamation suit brought by Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim against Utusan Melayu and its editor-in-chief Datuk Abdul Aziz Ishak.

The other two judges on the Court of Appeal panel were Justices Datuk David Wong Dak Wah and Datuk Varghese George Varughese. The unanimous judgement was written by Justice Varghese and was read out in open court by deputy registrar Zaini Fishir alias Fisal.

In his judgement, Justice Varghese said the court was of the view that the High Court judge was clearly in error, in both fact and law, to hold that Ibrahim was in contempt.

He said the finding of the High Court that Ibrahim had committed contempt was unsafe to be sustained and, accordingly, his punishment was set aside.

Justice Varghese also ordered that the RM20,000 fine which Ibrahim had paid be refunded to him.

He said Ibrahim's appeal was a fit and proper case that warranted intervention by the Court of Appeal.

Ibrahim and Zainuddin Salleh, who was the writer of the article, were found guilty of contempt of court by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Nov 19 last year.

High Court judge Datuk John Louis O'Hara had sentenced Ibrahim to a day's jail and fined him RM20,000. Ibrahim served the jail sentence. Zainuddin was sentenced to four weeks' jail and he also served the sentence, but did not appeal.

On March 5 last year, the High Court granted leave to Anwar to cite Ibrahim and Zainuddin for contempt over the alleged article posted on the Perkasa website on Jan 7 last year, which he claimed had tarnished Singham's image.

In his application to cite the duo for committal proceedings, Anwar alleged that the article on the Perkasa website contained personal attacks against the judge that amounted to contempt, and was published before the latter made his ruling.

On Jan 21 last year, Singham had ruled in favour of Anwar in his defamation suit against Utusan Melayu over publication of two articles on his (Anwar's) comments in a BBC interview on homosexuality laws.

Ibrahim subsequently filed an application to set aside the leave for the contempt of court order on the grounds that he and Perkasa were not responsible for the article and had no control over the website, but it was dismissed by the High Court on Aug 15, 2013.

Outside the court, Ibrahim, who was represented by counsel Adnan Seman, told reporters that his principle had always been to respect the decisions of the courts.

He said if he did any wrong, he would admit it and would not go to court just to defend what was wrong but if he did not commit any wrongdoing, he would fight all the way to get justice.

Anwar's counsel R. Sivarasa said he would obtain and study the judgement before deciding whether to bring the matter up to the Federal Court.