Ex Deputy Minister Wants Higher Damages Against Dap Duo For Libel

---

 
(From left) Tony Pua and Yeo Bee Yin are appealing a High Court judgment entered on Nov 30 requiring them to pay Chew Mei Fun a total sum of RM350,000.PUTRAJAYA: Former deputy minister Chew Mei Fun will appeal to raise the quantum of damages awarded to her by a High Court in a defamation suit against two DAP leaders over allegations she approved the sale of land at a lower value to MCA.
Her lawyer, Rueben Mathiavaranam, said the former MCA vice-president has given instructions to file a cross-appeal after having read the appeal records filed by former Damansara MP Tony Pua and current Puchong MP Yeo Bee Yin.
“We feel she deserves a higher quantum of damages as she was defamed in four articles,” the lawyer told FMT after the DAP duo’s appeal was called up for case management before Court of Appeal deputy registrar Radzilawatee Abdul Rahman.
Mathiavaranam said he received the five-volume appeal records yesterday.
He said the cross-appeal will be filed within 10 days.
The appeal has been scheduled for further case management on April 4.
On Nov 30, Justice Roslan Abu Bakar ordered Pua and Yeo to pay Chew damages of RM200,000 and RM150,000, respectively.
Chew had sued Pua in respect of publications which appeared in Malay Mail and Nanyang Siang Pau as well as on FMT in September 2017.
Yeo was sued in respect of a video published on Facebook and by Nanyang Siang Pau in the same month.
Pua and Yeo had alleged that Chew, who sat on a district land committee, had approved the sale of a piece of land to Selangor MCA below its market price.
Chew, a former deputy women, family and community development minister, and a senator from 2014 to 2017, filed her suit in March 2018.
At the time the offending statements were made, Pua was the Petaling Jaya Utara MP, and Yeo the Damansara Utama assemblyman.
The statements claimed Chew had abused her power and put herself in a position of conflict of interest.
However, Chew said she did not sit on the land committee, as land matters were outside her purview.
She also said Yeo had alleged that the land in question was being used by squatters for dragon fruit farming at the time it was sold to MCA. - FMT

---