Pas Mp Loses Defamation Case For Claiming Dap Trio Related To Chin Peng

---

 


The Georgetown High Court today ruled in favour of the DAP trio’s defamation suit against PAS MP Siti Mastura Muhammad.
This is over Siti Mastura’s claims linking Lim Kit Siang, DAP chairperson Lim Guan Eng and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok to the late Communist Party of Malaya supremo Chin Peng.
According to the DAP leaders' counsel Sankara Nair, judge Quay Chew Soon ordered Siti Mastura (above) to pay a total of RM750,000 in damages to the DAP trio, specifically RM300,000 to Kit Siang, RM250,000 to Guan Eng and RM200,000 to Kok.
The judge also imposed a five percent annual interest if the Kepala Batas MP failed to pay the amounts and ordered her to pay costs of RM25,000 each to the three DAP leaders.\
“Plaintiffs successfully proved the statement made by the defendant is defamatory and the defendant failed to prove her defence of justification, fair comment and qualified privilege.
“Additionally, an injunction (was) granted to refrain the defendant from repeating the statement,” Sankara said.
In his verdict, Quay said Siti Mastura's remarks during a 2023 speech in Kemaman, Terengganu and circulated on social media, were defamatory and lacked evidence.
He also said Siti Mastura acted with malice and her defence of fair comment did not hold water.
“The defendant has made inflammatory remarks, linking the plaintiffs to a prohibited political party and one of its infamous leaders. She has made unsavoury insinuations about the plaintiff's connection with communism.
“By linking the plaintiffs to a communist leader, the insinuation is that they are affiliated with and support communism. In our country, that is considered taboo,” Bernama reported the judge as saying during an online proceeding.
Baseless claims
Quay added that Siti Mastura had even used former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s name to make her allegations seem more credible, but the claims were baseless.
On Nov 4 last year, Siti Mastura alleged during a speech that the trio were related to Chin Peng and Lee.
Lim Guan Eng, Lim Kit Siang, and Teresa KokAs a result, the DAP leaders filed defamation suits against the PAS leader on Nov 29 last year, seeking general, compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages, as well as an injunction to restrain the defendant from further uttering the allegation.
When questioned by reporters back then, Siti Mastura did not provide evidence to back her claims.
“My answer, watch the video until the end. Watch the video until the end,” she said. - Mkini

---