FORMER Pandan member of Parliament Mohd Rafizi Ramli is not liable for defaming National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) executive chairman Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail and his company over his statements relating to alleged misuse of government funds, the Federal Court ruled today.

Following which, a three-man panel led by Chief Judge of Malaya Azahar Mohamed dismissed the appeals brought by Salleh and his company and ordered him to pay a cost of RM70,000 to Rafizi.

In the court’s decision, Azahar said the statement made by Rafizi was without malice and that Rafizi could resort to defence of fair comment to defeat the defamation suit filed against him.

Azahar said the High Court had found that Rafizi was not motivated by malice when making the alleged defamatory statements.

Azahar also said that there was sufficient substratum of facts to warrant Rafizi to make the statements.

He said it was also the finding of the High Court that Rafizi had an honest belief that his allegations were true and that he was performing a public duty in agitating for greater accountability for public funds.

“In my view, the respondent’s (Rafizi) conclusion that public funds had been misused as a leverage to secure a loan was an opinion and inferences that a fair-minded person would have honestly made.

“Therefore, Rafizi could not be liable for damages for defamation,” said Azahar.

Federal Court judges Zaleha Yusof and Zabariah Mohd Yusof concurred with Azahar’s decision.

Salleh and NFCorp filed a lawsuit against Rafizi in 2013 over statements made on March 7, 2012 at a media conference at the PKR office, alleging that Salleh and his company had used a RM71 million government loan as collateral to purchase eight office units in KL Eco City.

Salleh and NFCorp initially won the suit in the High Court in 2016 where the court ordered Rafizi to pay RM150,000 in damages to Salleh and RM50,000 to the company for defamation.

However, in 2019, the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Rafizi after setting aside the High Court’s order that he pay RM200,000 in damages to Salleh and his company.

In 2020, the Federal Court granted leave to Salleh and NFCorp to pursue their appeal in the Federal Court after Rafizi’s lawyers did not object to the leave application as several grounds of the appellate court’s decision relied on issues that were not raised in their case.

Lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah represented Salleh and NFCorp, while Rafizi was represented by lawyers Razlan Hadri Zulkifli and Ranjit Singh. – Bernama, April 21, 2022.