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Free Malaysia Today
6 days ago
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
UUM lecturer to appeal RM400k defamation ruling
The Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered lecturer Kamarul Zaman Yusoff to pay Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh RM400,000 for defaming her in two Facebook posts from 2017. (Bernama pic) PETALING JAYA : Universiti Utara Malaysia lecturer Kamarul Zaman Yusoff will appeal the Kuala Lumpur High Court's decision ordering him to pay RM400,000 in damages for defaming Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh through two Facebook posts in 2017. Kamarul, who was not present in court today, said his appeal would challenge both the factual findings and the legal basis of the ruling. 'I would like to stress that I respect the court's decision, but at the same time, I disagree with the findings that led to today's verdict,' he said in a statement. 'Therefore, I will file an appeal soon with the appellate court to challenge the High Court's decision.' Adding that the case was far from over, he urged all parties to allow a thorough review of the matter by the appellate court. He also expressed confidence in the legal system, which he said allows individuals to seek justice through appeals. 'I will exercise my legal rights to defend my freedom as enshrined in the Federal Constitution,' he said. Earlier today, Justice Aliza Sulaiman awarded RM200,000 as general and aggravated damages for each defamatory post. The court also ordered Kamarul to pay RM80,000 in legal costs. Yeoh, the youth and sports minister, filed the lawsuit in 2022 over Kamarul's Facebook posts. One was an article titled 'Hannah Yeoh contoh hipokrasi terbesar DAP di Malaysia' (Hannah Yeoh, the biggest example of DAP hypocrisy in Malaysia), and the other was a police report that he lodged against her and later shared online. Yeoh claimed that Kamarul, in both documents, accused her of 'proselytising Christianity through her politics', promoting a 'Christian agenda', and intending to 'convert Malaysia into a Christian country'. She asserted that the statements were offensive, untrue, and a malicious attempt to damage her reputation.
New Straits Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
UUM lecturer to appeal RM400,000 defamation ruling
rahmat@ KUALA LUMPUR: Dr Kamarul Zaman Yusoff will appeal the High Court's ruling ordering him to pay RM400,000 in damages to Hannah Yeoh for defamation. In a statement, Kamarul, a Universiti Utara Malaysia lecturer, said he respected the court's ruling but disagreed with its findings and the reasoning behind the decision. "Therefore, I will be filing an appeal in the near future to challenge the decision based on both facts and legal grounds," he said. "This process is far from over, and I urge everyone to allow the courts to reassess the matter thoroughly at the appellate stage," he added. Earlier, Judge Datuk Aliza Sulaiman said Kamarul, who served as a special officer to the prime minister from 2021 to 2022, had defamed Yeoh, the Segambut member of parliament, in two Facebook posts in 2017. The court said Yeoh, who is the Youth and Sports Minister, had proven, on a balance of probabilities, that both publications were defamatory in portraying her as a threat to Islam and as having abused her position to promote Christianity in Malaysia. The court said that if Kamarul truly believed Yeoh had committed an offence, filing a police report would have sufficed. Instead, he published the report on Facebook. The court also granted an injunction to restrain the defendant, his servants, or agents from republishing the impugned words or similar statements. In 2022, Yeoh filed a defamation suit against Kamarul over two Facebook posts uploaded by him in May 2017. The suit was filed for the two posts, including one in which Kamarul cited Yeoh's biography, Becoming Hannah: A Personal Journey, as evidence of her advancing a "Christian agenda."
