Court affirms dismissal of libel suit against Rewcastle Brown on technicality

Free Malaysia Today

19 hours ago

The Court of Appeal dismissed Mabel Sheila Muttiah's appeal in a defamation suit brought against journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown with costs of RM10,000.
PUTRAJAYA : The Court of Appeal has affirmed the High Court's dismissal of a defamation suit filed by former attorney-general Apandi Ali's special officer, Mabel Sheila Muttiah, against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown on a technicality.
A three-member bench chaired by Justice Azizah Nawawi said they were bound by an earlier decision of the appeals court in Rekha Munisamy v Ortus Expert White Sdn Bhd that a plaintiff must provide a translated Malay text of the impugned defamatory article.
'In this case, there is no translation, and this is non-compliance with Order 92 Rule 1 of the Rules of the High Court. We find there is no appealable error by the High Court,' Azizah said of the unanimous decision.
Also on the bench hearing the appeal were Justices Azizul Azmi Adnan and Ahmad Fairuz Zainol Abidin.
The court also ordered Mabel to pay RM10,000 in costs to Rewcastle Brown.
Last year, then judicial commissioner Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan noted that Mabel had failed to adhere to a mandatory requirement that the impugned article be translated into Malay in her pleadings.
Raja Ahmad, now a High Court judge, said this was a contravention of Order 92 Rule 1 of the Rules of Court, Section 8 of the National Language Act 1967 and Article 152 of the Federal Constitution.
He said that if not for the oversight, he would have allowed Mabel's suit with damages at RM1 million.
Raja Ahmad had ruled that the first impugned article was defamatory of Mabel.
However, he said two other articles published in Malaysiakini and FMT were not defamatory.
Mabel, who retired as a sessions court judge last year, sued Rewcastle Brown in 2019 over articles linking her to text messages sent to the family of deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais, who was murdered in September 2015.
The article in Sarawak Report was titled 'How AG's office connived to prevent a second post-mortem on Kevin Morais – exclusive expose'.
The report claimed that Mabel had sent texts to Morais's family members urging them to expedite the cremation of his remains to avoid a second post-mortem.
Raja Ahmad said the article suggested that the plaintiff was involved in a conspiracy of some kind at the highest level to cheat the family of the late Morais of their right to an independent post-mortem report.
He said the defamatory words had harmed Mabel's reputation and were tantamount to malicious falsehood.
He also said the article was published worldwide, which clearly damaged and gravely injured the plaintiff's reputation and her judicial and/or public office.
Lawyers David Gurupatham and R Venothani appeared for Mabel, while Guok Ngek Seong and Phyllia Lim represented Rewcastle Brown.