KUALA LUMPUR: Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah will not be taking the stand to testify in her suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown and two others over defamatory statements made against the former in Page 3 of 'The Sarawak Report (SR) - The Inside Story of 1MDB Expose'.
High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim made the decision after allowing the Sultanah’s application under Order 14A of the Rules of Court 2012 to dispose part of the trial through points of law.
In his judgment, Zaidi said the plaintiff (the sultanah) had succeeded in proving that the alleged defamatory passage on Page 3 was referring to her.
He said the court was of the view that the four elements required for defamation has also been fulfilled by the plaintiff.
The judge then set Jan 20 for case management to fix the trial dates.
In her application, Sultanah Nur Zahirah sought for the court to determine whether the article was referring to her. that it was published by a third party and was defamatory in nature.
Meanwhile, outside the court, Sultanah Nur Zahirah’s counsel Datuk Mohd Haaziq Pillay Abdullah said with the decision, his client does not have to come to court to testify.
“The application was to have a major part of the trial removed, which was allowed.
“The defendants will now have to come to court and it is open for them to state the defence available to them under the law.
“The plaintiff has been defamed and the elements of defamation has been proven by the plaintiff,” he said.
Sultanah Nur Zahirah filed the suit on Nov 21 last year after naming Rewcastle-Brown or Clare Louise Brown, Gerakbudaya Enterprise publisher Chong Ton Sin and printing company Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd, as defendants.
In her statement of claim, she alleged that Rewcastle-Brown had used defamatory statements in the book, which was published in August last year, and printed by Vinlin Press.
She claimed that the defamatory statements implied that she was involved in corrupt practices and interfered in the administration of Terengganu as well as used her role to influence the setting up of Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) and assisted fugitive businessman Jho Low or Low Taek Jho to become the advisor of TIA.
Sultanah Nur Zahirah alleged that the statements were defamatory as she was neither involved in the administration of the state nor the setting up of TIA now known as 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), and claimed that the statements had caused her embarrassment and tarnished her reputation in the eyes of the public.
She is seeking RM100 million in damages from each of the defendants.
She is also demanding that the second defendant (publisher) withdraw the books containing the defamatory statements as well as to stop the third defendant (printing company) from printing more copies of the book.