KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — The High Court has ordered Kamarul Zaman Yusoff to pay RM400,000 in damages to Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh, who won a defamation suit against the Universiti Utara Malaysia lecturer in May.
The ruling follows Judicial Commissioner Avinder Singh Gill’s decision to dismiss the defendant's application to stay the damages payment, finding that no special circumstances warranted a suspension.
“With today’s ruling, he is required to pay the damages,” Yeoh's lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo told the press after the proceedings in chambers. The court also ordered RM2,500 in costs against Kamarul.
Meanwhile, the defendant's lawyer Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz said the court had applied the maximum assessment and found no special circumstances to justify a stay of payment for his client.
“The previous High Court judgment ordering RM400,000 in damages remains in force. My client is also required to pay the damages, as bankruptcy proceedings have been initiated against him,” he said.
On August 15, Yeoh, who is also the Youth and Sports Minister, filed a bankruptcy notice against Kamarul after he failed to settle the damages.
On May 30, Judge Datuk Aliza Sulaiman ordered the defendant to pay RM400,000 in damages after upholding the plaintiff's defamation suit over statements made by Kamarul eight years ago.
In her ruling, Judge Aliza noted that the court was satisfied that Yeoh had discharged the burden of proof on the balance of probabilities, establishing that both the first and second publications were defamatory.
The 2022 defamation suit stemmed from two Facebook posts by Kamarul between May 10 and May 17, 2017, alleging that Yeoh had an agenda to convert others to Christianity and used her political platform to promote the religion.
He also cited her autobiography, 'Becoming Hannah: A Personal Journey', as evidence of the alleged agenda, claiming that Yeoh intended to turn Malaysia into a Christian nation.
