Appeals court upholds decision in Christina Liew's defamation suit

KOTA KINABALU: The Court of Appeal has upheld a High Court decision for an oil palm planter to pay RM100,000 in damages to former Sabah deputy chief minister Datuk Christina Liew over malicious statements he made in a viral video about her.

The three-member panel comprising Justices Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, Datuk Abu Bakar Jais and Datuk Supang Lian unanimously found on Wednesday (June 15) that there were no merits in Leksun Injil’s appeal.

In the High Court, trial judge Judicial Commissioner Justice Leonard David Shim had found Leksun liable in uttering defamatory words against Liew in regard to the Bagahak Plantation Scheme.

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Justice Shim had, at the end of the trial in January last year, awarded damages in the sum of RM100,000 to be paid by Leksun to Liew.

Leksun then appealed against the decision.

Leksun was found to have uttered the offending words at the Gaya Street Sunday Market three days before polling day for the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018 where Liew was nominated as PKR’s candidate for the Api Api state seat and Tawau parliamentary seat.

Liew had initiated the suit against Leksun, 56, on April 30, 2019, seeking damages for libel, including aggravated or alternative damages for slander.

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She had alleged that Leksun had uttered slanderous and defamatory statements against her in a video recording of himself, which went viral on social media, over the Bagahak Smallholders Scheme in east coast Lahad Datu.

Liew was represented by counsel Datuk Alex Decena and Jordan Kong while lawyers Yong Yit Jee and Shim Mong Seng appeared for Leksun.