KEDAH Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor has apologised to Amanah vice-president Mahfuz Omar over a defamatory Facebook post in 2019.

The apology came after the Court of Appeal had last month upheld the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision in 2021 to allow Mahfuz’s defamation suit and ordered Sanusi to pay RM120,000 in damages to the plaintiff.

“On July 2019, I uploaded a Facebook post on the relocation of a gambling premises Sport Toto from Alor Star to Pokok Sena.

“I had said that the sensitivities of Amanah and Pakatan Harapan leaders, who formed the government of the day, had degraded following the relocation of the Sport Toto premises to a Muslim-majority area in Kedah, without any objection until the issue was raised by the people and I, four months after the approval by the Finance Ministry.

“In accordance to the defamation suit filed by Mahfuz Omar against me in relation to the Facebook post, the High Court had on November 8, 2021 and the Court of Appeal on April 3, ruled that my Facebook posting was a defamatory remark against Mahfuz, thus I was ordered to issue an apology.

“I hereby extend my apology to Mahfuz for the statement uploaded in the Facebook post,” Sanusi said in a statement today.

On Wednesday, Sanusi said he had handed over RM120,000 cash to his lawyer to arrange the award payment to Mahfuz.

Last month the Court of Appeal ordered Sanusi to pay an increased sum of damages of RM120,000 to Mahfuz for defamation.

This was after a three-member bench comprising Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, Mariana Yahya and Wong Kian Kheong allowed Mahfuz’s cross-appeal for the quantum of damages to be increased from RM50,000 to RM120,000.

The bench had also dismissed Sanusi’s appeal to set aside the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s earlier decision, which ordered him to pay damages to Mahfuz after allowing the latter’s defamation lawsuit.

In the court’s decision, Justice Vazeer said there was no error by the High Court judge in his findings on liability, but noted that the quantum of damages awarded to Mahfuz by the High Court was low.

He also ordered Sanusi to pay RM10,000 in legal costs. – May 19, 2023.