Technicality sees libel suit against Rewcastle Brown thrown out

The Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed the defamation suit brought by Mabel Sheila Muttiah against Clare Rewcastle Brown.

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has dismissed a defamation suit filed by former attorney-general Apandi Ali’s special officer, Mabel Sheila Muttiah, against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown on a technicality.

Judicial Commissioner Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan said Mabel did not adhere to a mandatory requirement that the impugned defamatory article be translated into Bahasa Malaysia in her pleadings.

The judge said this resulted in her contravening Order 92 Rule 1 of the Rules of Court, Section 8 of the National Language Act and Article 152 of the Federal Constitution.

“The technical objection is allowed as I am bound by two Court of Appeal rulings on getting defamatory articles translated into the national language,” he said.

Raja Ahmad said he would have allowed Mabel’s suit if not for the oversight.

“I would have awarded RM1 million in damages as one of three articles is defamatory and injured her reputation,” he said.

The court also awarded Rewcastle Brown RM15,000 in costs.

Raja Ahmad said he was going into the merits of the suit as the decision may be the subject matter of an appeal.

“In such an event, I cannot rule out the possibility that the higher courts may disagree with me on this issue based on the specific and distinct circumstances of this case,” he said.

Raja Ahmad ruled that the first impugned article was defamatory of Mabel.

“It is not necessary to read between the lines of such an article to determine whether or not it contains defamatory elements,” he said.

However, he said two other articles published in Malaysiakini and FMT were not defamatory.

Mabel, who retired as a sessions court judge recently, sued Rewcastle Brown in 2019 over articles linking her to text messages sent to the family of deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais, who was murdered in September 2015.

The article in Sarawak Report was titled “How AG’s Office connived to prevent a second post-mortem on Kevin Morais – exclusive expose”.

The report claimed that Mabel had sent texts to family members of Morais urging them to expedite the cremation of his remains to avoid a second post-mortem.

Raja Ahmad said the article suggested that the plaintiff was involved in a conspiracy of some kind at the highest level to cheat the family of the late Morais of their right to an independent post-mortem report.

He said the defamatory words had harmed Mabel’s reputation and were tantamount to malicious falsehood.

“The article was published worldwide, which clearly damaged and gravely injured the plaintiff’s reputation and her judicial and/or public office,” he added.

Raja Ahmad said the compensation for general and aggravated damages should only be RM1 million, not RM100 million as claimed by the plaintiff. However, the matter was academic and non-enforceable.

Lawyers David Gurupatham and R Venothani appeared for Mabel, while Guok Ngek Seong and Phyllia Lim represented Rewcastle Brown.