PUTRAJAYA: Former attorney-general (AG) Tan Sri Apandi Ali failed to reinstate his RM10 million defamation suit against DAP Advisor Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang today.
This is after the Court of Appeal affirmed the High Court's decision in dismissing Apandi's lawsuit against Lim over an article that questioned the former AG's role in aiding and abetting in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
The Appellate Court also ordered Apandi to pay RM100,000 in total costs to Lim.
On May 23, last year, judge Datuk Azimah Omar in her decision said Lim had succeeded in justifying that he had qualified privilege when making those statements, as Datuk Seri Najib Razak was found guilty in 2020 in the RM42 million SRC International Sdn Bhd (1MDB's former subsidiary) criminal trial.
Apandi's suit centres on an article by Lim published in news portal Malaysiakini, titled "Dangerous fallacy to think Malaysia's on the road to integrity" on May 6, three years ago.
The suit claimed the defendant had deliberately or indirectly implied that Apandi was involved in criminal activities, is someone who is unethical, immoral, incompetent, and lacked responsibility, knowledge, expertise and other professional ethics to hold the post of AG at the material time.
Apandi, who is now a solicitor, claimed that Lim in his article published by news portal Malaysiakini implied that the plaintiff had a major role in aiding and abetting the 1MDB fiasco.
He said the article had tainted his reputation by claiming that he was directly involved, assisted and abetted in the 1MDB scandal.