KUALA LUMPUR: Former Penang deputy chief minister II P. Ramasamy was today ordered by the High Court to pay RM1.42 million for defaming controversial preacher Dr. Zakir Naik four years ago.
Judge Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz handed out the order after Zakir managed to discharge his burden of providing the tort of defamation for all five impugned statements.
She said Ramasamy's defence was without merit.
"I take the evidence by Ramasamy in his defence with an abundance of caution and was not persuaded by his argument.
"It is my considered view that Ramasamy's evidence is primarily untenable to negate these two suits against him.
"In construing the impugned statement, it is necessary to consider the actual words used and the context in which it was issued, whether it was libelous in nature premised on the foregoing factual matrix of this case," she said.
The court said the plaintiff has satisfied three essential elements of the tort of defamation, namely if the impugned statement defamatory in nature, if the impugned statement referred to the plaintiff, and whether the statement had been published to third parties.
"Ramasamy statements were undoubtedly defamatory and actuated by malice and anger towards Dr Zakir.
"Those impugned statements were personal attacks angled to disparage, ridicule and lower Zakir in the eyes of the general public," she added.
The preacher, in October 2019, filed a lawsuit against Ramasamy over the politician's four statements that were alleged to be defamatory against Zakir. The statements were issued between 2016 and 2019.
Zakir, in his suit, claimed that Ramasamy made the first defamatory statement via a Facebook post on April 10, 2015.
The second was in the form of an article titled "Is Malaysia harbouring alleged fugitive Zakir Naik?" which was published by an online news portal on Oct 1, 2017.
The third defamatory statement was made on Aug 11, 2019, through the article titled, "Naik should not question loyalty of Hindus in Malaysia", which was also carried by an online news portal.
Ramasamy was also alleged to have defamed Dr Zakir through a video interview on Aug 20, which was given to India-based media platform, India Today.
Zakir then filed a second suit against Ramasamy, in December 2019, where he alleged the defendant's remarks about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had defamed him.
