Fahmi Places Newspaper Listing To Serve Defamation Suit On Papagomo

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Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil has resorted to newspaper listing as a substituted service for his defamation suit against blogger Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, popularly known as Papagomo.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed the plaintiff’s bid for substituted service two weeks ago, following his legal team being unable to serve copies of the suit on the defendant linked to the allegation that the minister gave a political talk in a Rawang mosque.
When contacted today, Fahmi’s counsel Asheeq Ali Sethi Alivi confirmed that the civil court allowed the bid on Nov 6.
The lawyer added that a notification of the suit against Wan Azri was published by an English daily today as part of the court order.
Generally, when legal proceedings are filed against a defendant, a copy of the action must be personally delivered to the defendant as part of personal service to notify him or her of the suit.
However, the law allows a plaintiff to turn to substituted service if the copies of the legal action were unable to be served directly on the defendant.
Blogger PapagomoWan Azri has 14 days to enter an appearance in court against Fahmi’s defamation suit.
Failure of the defendant to enter appearance during that period may pave the way for the plaintiff to file for judgment in default of appearance (JID) against the defendant.
On Sept 5, the Lembah Pantai MP filed defamation suits over the mosque political talk claim not only against Wan Azri but also against independent speaker Ahmad Dusuki Abd Rani and the owner of the Facebook account “N13 Kuang”, Mohd Fauzan Madzlan.
Bernama reported Fahmi’s statement of claim as alleging that the three defendants had published defamatory words by accusing him of abusing a place of worship to campaign for an election, and acted contrary to the Selangor ruler’s orders.
Fahmi alleged that the defamatory words were posted on Wan Azri's TikTok and Facebook on Aug 1, while Fauzan's Facebook as well as Dusuki's Facebook and Instagram accounts posted the statements on July 31.
Fahmi contended that the statements were baseless and the Selangor Islamic Religious Council had confirmed that he did not give any political speech.
He claimed the statements were aimed at defaming his good name in order to gain cheap publicity or create a sensation in the national political arena, as well as to tarnish his reputation as an MP and minister.
Fahmi contended that letters of demand had been sent to the three individuals for them to withdraw the defamatory statements, pay damages, and publish an apology, but none had done as requested.
He seeks general, aggravated, or exemplary damages and an injunction to prevent the defendants from repeating or causing the re-publication of the statements.
He also wants the three defendants to withdraw the statement from their social media accounts and issue an apology through all mass media and online media, where he must agree with the content of the apology.
- Mkini

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