PUTRAJAYA: A lawyer won his defamation suit against blogger Papagomo who was ordered by the Court of Appeal to pay damages.
A three-member panel comprising judges Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim, Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim found that three articles posted on the website www.papagomo.blogspot.com were defamatory to Datuk Sukri Mohamed.
The court allowed Sukri's appeal to overturn a High Court's dismissal of his civil suit against Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, 31.
Abdul Aziz, who chaired the panel, ordered the case to be remitted back to the High Court in Kota Baru, Kelantan for assessment of damages.
He said the High Court had failed to consider the evidence of witnesses who had identified Wan Muhammad Azri as the blogger 'papagomo.'
He said the High Court had only considered the evidence of a witness from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) who had testified at the hearing in the High Court that MCMC did not have any information about the owner of the papagomo.blogspot.com blog.
Abdul Aziz said the Court of Appeal found that the evidence of three witnesses was sufficient to identify Wan Muhammad Azri as the blogger 'papagomo'.
He ordered Wan Muhammad Azri to pay RM20,000 costs to Sukri for court proceedings at the High Court and Court of Appeal.
Sukri, 51, a member of the Kelantan Service Commission and formerly a member of the Kelantan Council of Succession sued Wan Muhammad Azri for publishing the three articles on the papagomo.blogsport.com website in 2011 which he claimed had defamed him.
Wan Muhammad Azri, in his amended statement of defence, denied he was the blogger 'papagomo' and owner of the blog. He also claimed defence of justification, fair comment and qualified privilege.
Sukri was represented by lawyer Hisham Fauzi while Wan Muhammad Azri represented himself. - Bernama
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