SHAH ALAM, May 11 — Local daily The Star’s chief executive officer Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai hopes that Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali will give up his defamation suit, the former’s lawyer Yee Mei Ken said today.

This morning, the Shah Alam High Court struck out Ibrahim’s libel lawsuit against Wong, ruling that the latter’s remarks was not defamatory.

Despite the ruling in favour of Wong, Yee told reporters that he was instructed not to seek an order from the court for Ibrahim to foot the legal bills for Wong and The Star’s publisher.

“I have instructions from my client Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai that in the event the case is struck out, we will not seek costs against Ibrahim Ali.

"I have informed the judge accordingly. The judge has made no order as to costs,” he told reporters after the decision was delivered in chambers by judicial commissioner Gunalan Muniandy.

“With these instructions, it is our clients’ hope that Ibrahim Ali will put an end to this matter,” he added.

He confirmed that Ibrahim’s lawyer Izyan Anis Musanif had not indicated any intentions to appeal against today’s decision.

According to Yee, the judge ruled that a reasonable reader would understand Wong’s article as “legitimate criticism” against the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ decision not to charge Ibrahim over his bible-burning call and found that it was not directed at Ibrahim himself.

The judge also found that Wong and Star Publications (M) Bhd would be bound to succeed on the grounds of fair comment, justification and qualified privilege even if the words in the article were assumed to be defamatory, Yee added.

Ibrahim, who named Wong and Star Publications (M) Bhd as defendants, claimed the words published by The Star newspaper on November 2 last year in the article entitled “A mind-boggling spin”, implied that he was stupid, a religious extremist who had mocked Christianity and ought to be charged under the Sedition Act.

Wong, who is also Star Publications (M) Bhd group managing director, had applied to strike out Ibrahim’s December 26 defamation suit on the grounds of fair comment, justification and qualified privilege.

Previously, both Star Publications and Wong denied that the article was published falsely or maliciously, arguing in their statement of defence that they had a duty to publish it in response to the Attorney-General’s Chambers’s justification for not pursuing action against Ibrahim over his bible-burning call.

In January 2013, Ibrahim had called for the burning of Bibles, following reports that certain parties had distributed Malay-language Bibles containing the word “Allah” to students, including Muslims, at SMK Jelutong in Penang.