FORMER attorney-general (AG) Mohamed Apandi Ali’s defamation suit against DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang was dismissed by the High Court today.

Lim in 2019 had written about how the then AG had cleared Najib Razak of wrongdoing in 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). Najib was then the prime minister, finance minister and chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board.

High Court judge Azimah Omar today said Lim, who is Iskandar Puteri MP, is not liable for defamation in his article, “Dangerous fallacy to think Malaysia is on the road to integrity”.

The court ordered Apandi to pay RM80,000 in costs to Lim.

He filed his suit in July 5, 2019, after Lim’s article was published in news portal Malaysiakini on May 6 that year.

Apandi had been AG from July 27, 2015 to June 4, 2018.

In 2016, he issued a press statement exonerating Najib of wrongdoing in the wake of investigations by multiple enforcement agencies the year before.

In his defamation suit against Lim, Apandi said the article had implied he was party to a crime and had tarnished his reputation as a former AG.

Najib, meanwhile, was convicted in July 2020 of graft involving RM42 million in funds belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

He was sentenced to 12 years’ jail and a RM210 million fine. His appeal at the Federal Court is pending. – May 23, 2022.