GEORGE TOWN, Nov 19 – The High Court here on Wednesday asked for the defamation suit filed by Penang Chief Minister against news portal company, FZ Sdn Bhd, and its managing editor Terence Fernandez concerning the article on the purchase of a Mercedes-Benz as his official car published in the website www.fz.com, to be settled amicably.
Judicial Commissioner Datuk Nordin Hassan made the proposal in chambers in the presence of lawyers Datuk N. Mureli, who represented Lim, and Raja Eileen Soraya Raja Aman, who represented the company and Terence. Speaking to reporters later, Mureli said that the court had asked the two parties to discuss and try to achieve an amicable settlement of the case first while failing which the trial will proceed.
Therefore, he said Dec 4 was set for case management and for the court to learn about the development of the case. The court was initially scheduled to hear the mention of the case yesterday. Lim was also present at the proceeding. Lim filed the case in January 2014 and named the company as the first defendant and Terence, who is also the writer of the article, as the second defendant.
In his amended statement of claims, Lim claimed that Terence, as the managing editor and writer, had purposely, maliciously and ill-intentionally caused an article titled “MACC begins probe on Merc purchase” to be written and published on the website on Jan 3 last year.
The chief minister claimed that the article had defamed him as it implied that he was a corrupt, dishonest, untrustworthy and unqualified to be the leader of the people in Penang. Meanwhile, Lim claimed that the article also implied that he was involved in bribery to the extent of being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Lim also claimed that the MACC had issued a statement saying that it had never issued any media statement about an investigation being carried out on him (Lim) and refuted the allegation that Lim was being probed in connection with the purchase of the luxury car, as at Jan 5, 2014.
Lim is seeking general, aggravated and exemplary damages, a court order to have the defendants to withdraw the defamatory article and apologise to him, as well as interest, costs and other reliefs deemed fit by the court. In additional, the two defendants, in their statements of defence, denied that the article contained defamatory and malicious statements against the chief minister.
