PUTRAJAYA: A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, on Friday (Oct 16), reserved its decision on blogger Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris's appeal against the High Court's decision to sentence him to 30 days in jail for contempt of court in a defamation suit filed by former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain @ Abd Rasid.
Justice Azizul Azmi Adnan, who chaired the three-member panel, fixed Oct 29 for case management to set the date for the decision.
Earlier the panel, also comprising Justices Ong Chee Kwan and Mohd Radzi Harun, heard submissions by lawyers representing Wan Muhammad Azri, also known as Papagomo, and Razarudin respectively.
On Aug 27, 2025, High Court Judicial Commissioner Gan Techiong ruled that Wan Muhammad Azri had breached a court injunction concerning the ongoing defamation suit filed by Razarudin.
Gan sentenced the blogger to 15 days in jail for failing to properly comply with the court order to apologise to Razarudin, and another 15 days for making a statement in the video which showed a lack of remorse.
The High Court had ordered the custodial sentences to run consecutively and Wan Muhammad Azri was also ordered to pay Razarudin RM30,000 in costs. However, the court granted Wan Muhammad Azri a stay of execution of the sentence pending his appeal.
At the hearing of the appeal in the Court of Appeal Friday, Wan Muhammad Azri's lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali submitted that his client was not in contempt of court as he had complied with the terms of the court order by reading the agreed unconditional apology to the court and to Razarudin in open court on April 30, 2025 and deleted the earlier publications.
Muhammad Rafique said Wan Muhammad Azri had also complied with the court's directive to publish the same apology on his four social media accounts for at least seven days and had paid RM5,000 in costs as well as his apology was widely reported by the media.
Alternatively, he submitted that jail term imposed on his client should be substituted with a fine.
However, lawyer Raam Kumar representing Razarudin, urged the court to uphold the two contempt orders made by the High Court.
He submitted that Wan Muhammad Azri failed to genuinely comply with the apology, adding the apology was presented in a manner that made it difficult to read and it was not shown to have been maintained on Wan Muhammad Azri's relevant social media platforms.
Raam, assisted by Tan Khay Boon and Norleena Jamal, further said under Section 69(4) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, the court has the power to increase the sentence even if there is no cross-appeal regarding it.
Razarudin filed a RM3mil defamation suit against Wan Muhammad Azri on Dec 27, 2024 over allegedly defamatory remarks involving him and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
On Jan 10, 2025, Razarudin obtained an injunction prohibiting Wan Muhammad Azri or his agents from publishing or disseminating defamatory statements about him on social media until disposal of the civil suit.
The High Court had scheduled to hear the contempt of court proceedings initiated by Razarudin on April 30, last year. However, Wan Muhammad Azri decided to apologise to Razarudin and to the court. - Bernama
