KUALA LUMPUR: The daughter of former Sarawak governor Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud, Jamilah Taib Murray, partially lost her defamation suit against an environmental non-governmental organisation in a Swiss court.
The NGO, Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF), said in a statement that the Basel civil court had rejected the plaintiffs' injunction application to stop the organisation from making seven allegedly defamatory statements against the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs are Jamilah, her husband Sean Murray and their Canada-based real estate company Sakto Group.
"The court ruled that the legal request by the plaintiffs for a ban was too broadly formulated as BMF had not made the statements in this form.
"The court also rejected the legal request to delete all publications allegedly containing these statements.
"However, the court has not yet ruled on 259 text passages that the plaintiffs had applied to have deleted and on the allocation of court costs.
"The court upheld the claim as it did not consider it to be manifestly abusive," BMF said yesterday (Dec 17).
BMF managing director Lukas Straumann said the organisation welcomed the decision, describing it as a significant victory for truth and a blow to efforts aimed at silencing their advocacy.
"This decision is of enormous significance and a huge blow for the plaintiffs who sued us solely to suppress the truth.
"We are confident that we will also win the remaining parts of the case in full."
BMF is a Swiss NGO dedicated to the conservation of tropical rainforests and to fight corruption in the timber industry.