PUTRAJAYA: The Sultanah of Terengganu, Sultanah Nur Zahirah, has to testify to prove her defamation suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown and two others.

       This was the outcome after the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by Rewcastle-Brown and two others to set aside a High Court’s decision in exempting Sultanah Nur Zahirah from testifying in her defamation suit against them.

       Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah, who led a three-member panel, in a unanimous decision, said the plaintiff ought not to have pursued the matter via Order 14A of the Rules of the Court 2012 for the case to be decided through points of law.

       “The matter is to be determined at a trial. The whole application should have been dismissed. We, therefore, allow the appeal and set aside the High Court judge’s order dated Dec 13, 2019,” said Justice Mohamad Zabidin.

       The other two judges who presided over the proceedings conducted via Zoom were Justices S. Nantha Balan and Lee Heng Cheong.

       Justice Mohamad Zabidin said in this case, the impugned statement was found on page three of the book and it must be determined at the trial.

       “The court agreed that the bane and antidote is an ingredient of defence but it is not an exclusive defence. The publication must be read as a whole and the bane and antidote must be taken together. It cannot be truncated in the way the judge has done under Order 14A,” he said.

       The panel made the ruling after hearing submissions from senior counsel Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, who appeared for Rewcastle-Brown, publisher Gerakbudaya Enterprise and printer Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd as the appellants, and counsel Vishnu Kumar, representing Sultanah Nur Zahirah.

       Meanwhile, another of Sultanah Nur Zahirah’s counsel, Datuk Mohd Haaziq Pillay, said they would make an application for their client to give evidence via video conferencing due to the issue of security.

       He said the High Court had set Aug 26 for case management of the suit.

       On Dec 13, 2019, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed Sultanah Nur Zahirah’s application for the suit to be disposed of by way of Order 14A of the Rules of the Court 2012 through determination on points of law.

       Following the court’s decision, Sultanah Nur Zahirah was exempted from testifying in the defamation suit which she filed in November 2018 against Rewcastle-Brown, Gerakbudaya Enterprise and Vinlin Press.

       In her statement of claim, Sultanah Nur Zahirah alleged that Rewcastle-Brown made a disparaging statement on her in her book, The Sarawak Report – The Inside Story of the 1MDB Expose.

       The Sultanah is claiming general damages of RM100mil from each defendant and is also seeking an order for the publisher to withdraw the book containing the defamatory statement and for the printer to stop printing the book. — Bernama