Ex-deputy CM Liew wins defamation suit against planter

KOTA KINABALU: Former Sabah deputy chief minister Datuk Christina Liew has won a defamation suit against a planter who uttered and wrote malicious statements in a viral video about her few days prior to GE14 in 2018.

Liew was awarded RM100,000 in damages and RM50,000 in costs.

The Api-Api assemblywoman was also allowed an injunction restraining the planter, Leksun Injil, or his servants or agents or otherwise, from publishing or causing to be published or contributing to the publication of the defamatory video of the plaintiff.

High Court Judicial Commissioner Leonard David Shim had delivered the sentence via e-Review on Tuesday (Jan 26).

In his verdict, the judicial commissioner said that Liew had proved on a balance of probabilities that the words were defamatory to her, they referred to her and there was publication of the words by the defendant to a crowd on Gaya Street.

He said the defendant had contributed to the publication of the defamatory statements in the WhatsApp video that went viral and that the defendant had failed in his defence of justification and fair comment.

Shim said the plaintiff’s cause of action for libel and slander has been proven on a balance of probabilities.

The trial was heard from July 20 to 22,2020, where Liew had called three witnesses including herself to testify while Leksun was the sole witness.

Liew was represented by counsel Datuk Alex Decena and Jordan Kong while Leksun was represented by counsel Chong Kian Ming.