KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — The High Court has allowed an application by Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Razarudin Husain to commence a second committal proceeding against blogger Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris for violating the terms of his apology previously ordered by the court.
The application is related to a RM3 million lawsuit filed by Razarudin against Azri, also known as Papagomo, over alleged defamation, which also involved Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Judicial Commissioner Gan Techiong decided the matter after hearing the submissions by lawyers Raam Kumar and Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali, representing Razarudin and Azri, respectively.
"The inter-parte (both parties) hearing for the committal order is set for June 30, at 10am, and the presence of the defendant (Azri) is mandatory," he said during the ruling today.
The court also ordered Azri to file the affidavit-in-reply on or before May 23, while Razarudin was given until June 6. They must also submit the written submissions on or before June 20.
In his submission, Raam Kumar argued that Azri should have remained silent after the apology was made in court on April 30.
"On May 1, the defendant deliberately published a video via TikTok (Papa Azri) and YouTube (Sir Azri), and the statement contradicted the written apology that had been agreed to in the previous committal order.
"The apology was not sincere and was not published through the same social media account as ordered by the court. The apology on social media, accompanied by the background music of 'Maafkan Kami' from a clip from the film Pendekar Bujang Lapok directed by the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee, was a joke," he said.
Meanwhile, Rafique said his client had no intention of defying the court’s order and that the apology had already been posted on the defendant’s social media accounts and reported by the media.
On Monday (May 5), Razarudin filed a notice of an ex parte application seeking a committal order for Muhammad Rafique to be arrested, brought to court, and imprisoned for contempt of court.
He applied because Azri failed to comply with the conditions to delete the publication of videos dated Jan 14 and 15 related to a defamation suit filed against him. He also did not post the apology that was read out in court last April 30 on YouTube, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and Telegram.
On February 10 this year, the court granted Razarudin permission to commence committal proceedings against Azri for allegedly failing to comply with the injunction order on January 10 by posting about Razarudin on YouTube, TikTok, X and Telegram.
However, on April 30, Azri issued an unreserved apology to Razarudin for violating the injunction order.
The injunction prohibits him or his agents from publishing or disseminating defamatory content in any form concerning Razarudin, whether in his official capacity as IGP or as an individual.
This includes written, verbal, videos, online or instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.
The court also ordered Azri to retract and delete videos posted on December 14, December 15, December 20, and December 22 last year on his YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Telegram, and X accounts, deemed defamatory.
— Bernama
