High Court Dismisses Defamation Suit Against Ayob Khan

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The High Court judge said deputy IGP Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, who was then Johor police chief, did not mention the lawyer’s name throughout the press conference. (Bernama pic)SHAH ALAM: The High Court here has dismissed a defamation suit brought by a lawyer against deputy inspector-general of police Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay.
Kamal Hisham Jaafar had sued Ayob in 2021 after the latter told a press conference that police had arrested a lawyer for allegedly cheating an advertising company out of RM185,062.
Ayob, who was then the Johor police chief, claimed the said lawyer had ties with the Johor royal family and was previously convicted for money laundering and criminal breach of trust (CBT).
Kamal alleged that Ayob wanted to injure his reputation and had “twisted” the contents of Kamal’s criminal cases during the press conference.
However, High Court judge Tee Geok Hock dismissed Kamal’s suit today because Ayob had not mentioned Kamal’s name throughout the press conference, which was streamed live on Facebook.
Tee also ordered Kamal to pay RM20,000 in costs.
“The defendant (Ayob) did not say anything which could lead a listener to make any reasonable inference that the ‘lawyer suspect’ was the same lawyer who attracted much publicity in the newspapers a few years before the date of the press conference,” he added.
The court also heard that Kamal was slapped with 17 charges – consisting of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and offences under the Companies Act – in the Johor Bahru sessions court in 2015.
However, he pleaded guilty in 2018 to an alternative charge under the Companies Act and was fined RM30,000.
The other 16 charges were taken into consideration by the court before it handed down the sentence but no conviction was recorded.
Tee went on to say that Ayob had proven on a balance of probabilities that Kamal had admitted to committing CBT and money laundering offences in the past.
And the absence of a formal court’s record of conviction for such offences did not materially injure Kamal’s reputation, Tee added.
“To a reasonable man, in the context of defamation, there is no real difference between a recorded conviction of an accused person and admission made in the court by the accused person that he had committed the offence.
“In both situations, the reasonable man’s understanding is that the accused person was guilty of the offence.”
Besides that, the judge said there was no malice by Ayob to injure Kamal’s reputation, based on Ayob’s tone and facial expression during the press conference.
“From my observation, this court finds that the defendant merely read the press statement as prepared by one ACP Siva in an official and professional manner,” he said, referring to the investigating officer.
“There was not the slightest evidence or indication to suggest there was any malice at all and no intentional twisting of any information at all.”
The judge said Ayob, as the state police chief, had the duty to inform members of the public not to fall victim to similar scams.
“The court does not find any intention on the part of the defendant to shame the plaintiff’s character, image and career.” - FMT

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