Guan Eng to testify in damages assessment hearing of his suit against Raja Petra

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng (pic) will testify in the hearing of assessment of damages in his defamation suit against blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin over allegations of corruption in the RM6.3bil Penang undersea tunnel project.

Lim’s counsel, Simon Murali, told reporters that the assessment of damages is regarding the judgment in default awarded by the High Court to Lim on Feb 28.

"The court has set Aug 21 for hearing and we told the court that so far only one plaintiff’s witness will testify and that is Lim himself,” he said after case management before Judge Datin Rohani Ismail in chambers Wednesday (July 1).

On Feb 28, Lim, who is also former Penang chief minister, obtained a judgment in default against Raja Petra as the blogger did not contest the suit.

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

The purported defamatory articles are with regard 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 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