Court advises Maria, Jamal to settle defamation suit amicably

The High Court today proposed that the defamation suit filed by activist Maria Chin Abdullah against Sungai Besar UMNO division chief Datuk Jamal Md Yunos, be settled amicably.

Maria is suing Jamal for allegedly linking Bersih with the Daish terror group.

Lawyer Melissa Sasidaran, representing Maria, told reporters that judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab made the suggestion during case management in his chambers in the presence of lawyer Mohammed Nasser Yusof, who represented Jamal.

Melissa said the court fixed Jan 9 for another case management for both parties to update the court on the matter.

On Oct 7, Maria, 60, who is steering committee chairman of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) sued Jamal, who is also the Coalition of Malay Non-governmental Organisations chairman and leader of the Red Shirts movement.

In her statement of claim, Maria said Jamal had allegedly issued the defamatory statement on two occasions. The first time was at a press conference within the grounds of the Putra World Trade Centre on Sept 28, and the second at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman on Oct 4.

She claims that the defamatory statement, published in the newspapers and online news portals, had tarnished her reputation and good name.

She is seeking general, aggravated and exemplary damages, as well as an injunction to restrain the defendant from repeating or publishing the defamatory words. - BERNAMA