KOTA KINABALU, Aug 18 ― PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang will be filing a court application to set aside a Sessions Court judgement ordering him to pay damages to a Sabahan Christian who had sued him for allegedly making defamatory religious remarks.

Sabah-based lawyer Hamid Ismail who is acting for Hadi said his client had not received the writ of summons at any point and therefore did not know he had to appear in court for the suit which resulted in the default judgement.

"I’ll be filling an application to set aside the default judgement within the 30-day time limit,” Hamid told Malay Mail Online when contacted today.

He added that there are other grounds for the application, which will be disclosed later.

"If he had received the summons, he must file the memorandum of appearance but since he didn’t receive it, there was nothing to file,” Hamid said.

On August 12, the Sabah Sessions court ruled in favour of Sabah Christian Marcel Jude Joseph who had sued Hadi for allegedly making negative remarks against his religion and interfering with his constitutional right to freedom of religion under Article 11 of the Federal Constitution.

The court ruled that Hadi must pay the 54-year-old lawyer damages for blasphemy, punitive damages, statutory interest and cost, the sum of which has to be assessed by court.

Marcel had applied for a judgement and after considering the application, the court issued a certificate of non-appearance by the defendant despite being served with the summons by the plaintiff’s lawyer on July 19. The court then granted judgement in favour of the plaintiff.

Marcel, a member of the Sabah Catholic Lawyers Apostolate, filed the suit against Hadi last January 25 based on his comments in an article "Christianity rejected by the educated, says Hadi” published on January 18 in the Free Malaysia Today (FMT) online portal in which the Islamist opposition party chief reportedly said Christian missionaries had come to Malaysia only after failing in the west.

Marcel had said the article was blasphemous and unlawful interference with his constitutional right to freedom of worship under Article 11 of the Federal Constitution.