Kedah MB's appeal hearing over defamation case postponed

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has postponed the hearing of an appeal by Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor (pic) against a High Court order for him to pay RM50,000 in damages to Pokok Sena MP Datuk Mahfuz Omar for defamation.

Justice Datuk Lee Swee Seng, who led a three-judge bench, informed counsels in the appeal during an online proceeding that the appeal could not be heard as it had a meeting at 3pm Tuesday (Aug 23).

Prior to that, the bench heard several other cases until 2pm.

ALSO READ: Mahfuz Omar wins defamation suit, gets RM50,000 in damages from Sanusi

Justice Lee, who presided with Justices Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, then ordered for case management on Wednesday (Aug 24) to fix a new hearing date.

On Nov 8 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered Muhammad Sanusi to pay RM50,000 in damages to Mahfuz after allowing the latter's defamation lawsuit.

Judicial Commissioner Datuk Mohd Arief Emran Arifin also ordered Muhammad Sanusi to write an apology on the plaintiff's Facebook page and to pay him RM15,000 in legal costs.

The court also issued a restraining order preventing Muhammad Sanusi or his agents from publishing defamatory words against Mahfuz in the future.

Mahfuz filed the suit against Muhammad Sanusi on Oct 9, 2019 over a post made by the latter on Facebook on July 30 the same year, which linked Mahfuz as the Pokok Sena MP to the transfer of a Sports Toto outlet to the area.

Mahfuz also claimed that Muhammad Sanusi posted a video on his Facebook account on July 27, 2019, which showed a group of individuals protesting the opening of the outlet in Pokok Sena, while holding a banner bearing the plaintiff's name.

Lawyers Yusfarizal Yussoff and Mohd Faizi Che Abu represented Muhammad Sanusi, while Mahfuz was represented by counsel Noorazmir Zakaria. – Bernama