KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — Actress Maria Farida was awarded damages totaling RM400,000 by the High Court here today after winning in a defamation suit which she filed against a cosmetics businesswoman and her daughter last year.

Judicial Commissioner Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh made the decision after taking account failure of the defendants — Hadijah Mohamed Mokhtar and daughter, Nur Shazleen Anis Mohd Yusoff — to be in court for hearing of the case.

He said the court also took into account the implications of the slander by the defendants on Maria Farida.

The defendants, he said, had uploaded defamatory statements on the actress on their Instagram accounts.

"The first defendant (Hadijah) has 17,300 followers on her Instagram, while the second defendant  (Nur Shazleen) has about 13,000 followers,” Wan Ahmad Farid said.

The court ordered Hadijah to pay damages of RM300,000, while Nur Shazleen RM100,000 , to Maria Farida, whose real name is Maria Faridah Atienza. The two family members were also ordered to pay costs of RM50,000 to the actress.

Maria Farida, represented by lawyer Tengku Haris Tengku Rostam, was not in court today.

Hadijah and Nur Shazleen were represented by lawyer Hermes Media Putra Ibrahim.

The court had issued a full judgment on the case on Nov 7 last year after both defendants failed to comply with court orders, including not attending court proceedings.

In the judgment, the court among others, issued an order for the two defendants to publish an apology with the contents to be agreed by the plaintiff  before its publication in all media, including Berita Harian, and posted on the defendants' Facebook and Instagram accounts. — Bernama