April 14: Hearing to assess damages for Lim in defamation suit against Raja Petra

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has set April 14 for hearing to assess the quantum of damages for former Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng in his defamation suit against blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin over allegation of corruption in the RM6.3 billion Penang undersea tunnel project.

His lawyer, Simon Murali, when contacted by reporters, said the matter was earlier fixed for hearing before Judge Datin Rohani Ismail today, but it had been vacated and a new date (April 14) was set for the hearing.

Lim filed the suit on Sept 6, 2019, over a series of “From the MACC Files” articles, in both English and Bahasa Malaysia versions, carried on Raja Petra’s online news portal, ‘Malaysia Today, between Feb 24 to March 15, 2019.

On Feb 28 last year, the former Penang Chief Minister obtained a judgment in default judgment against Raja Petra as the blogger did contest the suit.

pThe purported defamatory articles are with regards to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation into the issue of alleged corruption in the infrastructure project.

Lim had sought exemplary damages on grounds that Raja Petra had profited from the huge volume of readership on all the articles.

He had also among others sought a front-page apology, and an injunction to prevent the blogger from repeating his allegations.

The DAP secretary-general filed an application for a judgment in default after Raja Petra failed to respond to the notice of the suit that Lim placed in three newspapers this year.

Lim had also attempted to serve the writ and statement of claim to Raja Petra by personal service at the blogger’s last known address which was obtained from the National Registration Department and the Election Commission, but was unsuccessful.

-- BERNAMA