KUALA LUMPUR: A former special officer to an ex-attorney-general today lost her RM100 million suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown because she did not translate two allegedly defamatory articles into Bahasa Melayu.
High Court judicial commissioner Datuk Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan ruled against retired Sessions Court judge Mable Sheela Muttiah in her suit over three articles, including a 2015 Sarawak Report titled, "How AG's office connived to prevent a second postmortem on Kevin Morais - Exclusive Exposè".
Mabel was once a special officer to Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali.
Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin said the plaintiff had failed to translate two of the three allegedly defamatory articles into Bahasa Melayu, a mandatory requirement for all pleadings filed in court.
Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin said the plaintiff had failed to translate two of the three allegedly defamatory articles into Bahasa Melayu, a mandatory requirement for all pleadings filed in court.
He said the requirement for complete pleadings in Bahasa Melayu is tritely attributed to the language's supremacy as a national language.
He said this is enshrined in Article 152 of the Constitution and Section 8 of the National Language Act 1963/67 and Order 92 Rule 1 of the Rules of Court 2012.
He said the plaintiff made inferences about the meaning of the articles, but there was still no certified translation in Bahasa Melayu.
He said he was bound by two Court of Appeal rulings.
"On this sole basis, I am therefore constrained to hold that the defect is so fundamental that it is not permissible for me to allow the plaintiff's claim as set forth in her amended statement of claim.
"As a result, the plaintiff's claim must fail," he said.
Mabel was ordered to pay RM15,000 in costs to Rewcastle-Brown.
Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin said he would have awarded RM1 million in damages as one of the three articles was defamatory and injured Mabel's reputation.
He said after carefully reviewing the parties' submissions, he concluded that the first article was clearly defamatory to the plaintiff.
"The article clearly suggested that the plaintiff was involved in a conspiracy of some kind at the highest level to cheat the family of the late Morais of their rights to a second independent post-mortem report.
"On the basis of the evidence presented to me, the article was published worldwide, which clearly damaged and gravely injured the plaintiff," he said.
Mabel was represented by counsels Datuk David Gurupatham and R. Venothani, while Guok Ngek Seong and Phyllia Lim stood for Rewcastle-Brown.