PUTRAJAYA, Nov 4 — The Court of Appeal dismissed today Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd’s appeal against a High Court decision that found its newspaper to have defamed DAP’s Lim Kit Siang.

A three-member panel chaired by Justice Datuk Lim Yee Lan unanimously upheld the lower court’s decision after hearing submissions from Utusan’s lawyer, M. Reza Hassan.

“I find no merits to the appeal, no error in the decision of the High Court judge,” Lim said, when ordering the publisher to pay RM15,000 in costs.

When met outside the courtroom, Reza said he will seek his client’s instructions on whether to appeal today’s ruling.

In September last year, Lim filed the defamation suit against Utusan Melayu for printing the article, “Kit Siang Manipulasi, Pemilihan CEC” (Kit Siang manipulated the CEC election) in its weekend paper Mingguan Malaysia ― which he said has damaged his reputation.

The contentious article published on August 18, 2013 heavily quoted a 16-page booklet, titled “Equity Report” by “Father Augustus Chen”, which claimed irregularities and vote manipulation allegedly to place cronies of both Lim and his son, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, on the powerful CEC, among other allegations.

On December 10 last year, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang won his defamation case and was awarded RM250,000 in damages by a KL High Court.

The court also ordered the publisher to pay RM25,000 in costs to the DAP parliamentary leader.