PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court today rejected former attorney general (AG) Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali's application to challenge the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of his RM10 million defamation lawsuit against DAP veteran Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang.
Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who chaired the Federal Court's three-judge panel, delivered the unanimous decision alongside Federal Court judges Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais.
"There is nothing novel which merit arguments at the Federal Court," she said, adding that the lower courts had decided in accordance with it's evaluation of available evidence and law principles.
The bench also awarded Lim RM30,000 in cost.
As Mohamed Apandi failed to obtain leave, this means the Court of Appeal's decision in November last year in favour of Lim will stand.
For today's hearing, lawyers Rueben Mathiavaranam and Liew Teck Huat appeared for Mohamed Apandi while Lim was represented by Sangeet Kaur Deo.
Lim was present in court, while Mohamed Apandi was absent.
Mohamed Apandi previously filed the application to obtain leave for the present appeal on December 1, 2023.
On November 2, 2023, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal chaired by Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail unanimously ruled that Lim had successfully raised the defence of fair comment and justification to ward off the RM10 million suit.
The appellate court also said Lim, as the Iskandar Puteri MP at the time, had a "moral duty” to raise the 1MDB financial scandal since it involved public funds.
It added Mohamed Apandi, who was the AG at the time, had been entrusted with the authority to direct investigations and prosecute those responsible without fear of favour.
Yet the court said Mohamed Apandi sought to impede and obstruct the investigations through various efforts he undertook during office for the purpose of covering up the scandal.
In his suit filed on July 5, 2019, Mohamed Apandi claimed that on May 6, 2019, Lim had written and caused to be published an article titled “Dangerous fallacy to think Malaysia’s on the road to integrity” in the Malaysiakini news portal.
Mohamed Apandi claimed the alleged libellous words in the article implied that he was involved in crime and had abetted in the 1MDB financial scandal, was a person with no morals and integrity, was unethical and had abused his power when he was the AG.
Mohamed Apandi, who was the AG from July 27, 2015, to June 4, 2018, contended that the libellous words were untrue and written with the intention of tarnishing his image and credibility for cheap publicity.
On May 23, 2022, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissed Mohamed Apandi’s suit against the DAP veteran.
The High Court ruled that the former lawmaker was justified in questioning Mohamed Apandi’s dismissive attitude to act on 1MDB and subsequently exonerated Datuk Seri Najib Razak of any criminal wrongdoings.
Mohamed Apandi filed the appeal against the High Court’s decision a day later.
