PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal ordered a former home minister and three others to pay RM350,000 in damages to Seputeh MP Teresa Kok Suh Sim over her 2008 detention under the Internal Security Act 1950 (ISA).
A three-man bench chaired by Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim today made the ruling against former home minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, former Inspector-General of
Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan, deputy superintendent E. Kim Tien, and the government.
The bench had unanimously allowed an appeal by Kok, whose lawsuit was dismissed by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on April 22 last year.
Abang Iskandar ruled that Syed Hamid and other respondents failed to prove that the arresting officer had sufficient grounds for detaining Kok under the ISA.
He also ordered all four respondents to pay RM70,000 in cost to Kok.
Counsel S. N. Nair appeared for Kok while senior federal counsel Tengku Amir Zaki Tengku Abdul Rahman acted for all the respondents.
Kok filed the suit in 2009, claiming that she was not allowed to contact her relatives or lawyers when detained at her residence at Pearl Tower, OG Heights, on Sept 12 the previous year.