NFCorp, Mohamad Salleh lose appeal in defamation suit against Nurul Izzah, PKR

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has dismissed the appeal by National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) and its executive chairman, Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail over their defamation suit against Permatang Pauh Member of Parliament (MP), Nurul Izzah Anwar and PKR.

A three-member bench comprising Federal Court judges Datuk Seri Mohd Zawawi Salleh, Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim and Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal upheld the decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal in dismissing NFCorp and Mohamad Salleh's defamation suit.

Justice Harmindar Singh, who delivered the court's decision, said Nurul Izzah and Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who was sued in his capacity as PKR secretary-general, had made out the defence of justification and they could not be liable for damages for defamation.

He also said that the High Court held that Nurul Izzah’s statement read in its entirety was not defamatory.

The court ordered NFCorp and Mohamad Salleh to pay RM50,000 in costs.

NFCorp and Mohamad Salleh filed the suit on Dec 4, 2013 against Nurul Izzah, who was then Lembah Pantai MP, and Saifuddin in relation to their statements over allegations concerning the purchase of eight units of property at KL Eco City.

They claimed that Nurul Izzah had made a slanderous statement on Malaysiakini TV on March 7, 2012.

The High Court had on March 4, 2016, dismissed NFCorp and Mohamad Salleh's lawsuit and they also lost their appeal in the Court of Appeal which was also dismissed on July 10, 2017.

In the court's unanimous decision, Justice Harmindar Singh said the Court of Appeal had agreed with the findings of the High Court that there was substantial truth in the statement at the press conference which was on the conflict of interest surrounding Mohamad Salleh's wife, Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil when she was the MP for Lembah Pantai.

Justice Harmindar said the focus of Nurul Izzah's press statement was on the perceived injustice done to those squatters by having to make way with scant compensation.

He said the focus was also on whether there was any conflict of interest by Mohamed Salleh's wife when eight units of condominium were purchased by her own family including Mohamad Salleh.

Justice Harmindar said it was the court's view that the real question for determination was related to the impression created in the mind of the ordinary and reasonable viewer after viewing the whole press statement.

"In our assessment, such a person will not pay any attention to the alleged defamatory matter complained about, which was in effect one sentence in a very long press statement and instead be focused only on the major part of the press statement concerning the wife of the first plaintiff (Mohamad Salleh)," he said.

The judge said that one sentence was meant to be an introduction to the main sting in that it was a revelation by former Pandan MP Rafizi Ramly on the misuse of funds.

He said no action had since been filed by Shahrizat in respect of those allegations although a suit was filed against Rafizi for the statements which he had made.

On the defence of justification, Justice Harmindar Singh said Mohamed Salleh failed to disclose his sources of income to finance the purchase of the condominium units apart from making bare assertion as duly noted by the High Court judge.

He said it would not be far-fetched to deduce from the entirety of the evidence at the trial, that there had been misuse of public funds for personal gain.

Lawyers Razlan Hadri Zulkifli and Datuk Joshua Kevin represented Nurul Izzah while lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah appeared for Mohamad Salleh and NFCorp.

-- BERNAMA