KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 — The Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of Federal Territories Minister Hannah Yeoh in her defamation suit against former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan, ordering him to pay her RM250,000 in global damages.

A three-member Court of Appeal bench led by Federal Court Judge Datuk Azimah Omar, sitting with Court of Appeal Judges Datuk Dr Choo Kah Sing and Datuk Dr Shahnaz Sulaiman, also ordered Musa to pay Hannah RM60,000 in costs.

Justice Azimah said the judicial commissioner had erred in dismissing Hannah’s suit and that appellate intervention was warranted, according to a Bernama report.

“The learned judicial commissioner had erred in her decision when she dismissed Hannah’s lawsuit. We allow the appeal and hereby order the decision to be reversed and set aside,” Justice Azimah said.

Hannah, 47, filed the appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision on December 23, 2024, which dismissed her suit and ordered her to pay RM40,000 in costs to Musa.

The suit was originally filed in 2020 over statements Musa made at a forum on January 30, 2020, relating to the issue of “Christianisation” in Malaysia. Hannah was present in court during the ruling.

Reading out the judgment, Justice Azimah said the High Court had incorrectly allowed Musa to rely on defences of justification, fair comment, and qualified privilege in relation to statements Hannah claimed were defamatory.

The judge noted that Musa had called Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) lecturer Dr Kamarul Zaman Yusoff as a witness, but the testimony consisted merely of opinions and the witness was not recognised as an expert.

“The judicial commissioner contradicted her ruling by holding that Kamarul is a witness of ‘fact’ and Musa can rely on the former’s ‘opinion’ in his defence,” Justice Azimah said, noting that Dr Kamarul had also lost a separate defamation case filed by Hannah last year.

Justice Azimah further stated that there was no evidence showing Hannah had used her book, Becoming Hannah: A Personal Journey, to propagate her religion or undermine Islam.

“Then Bibles should not be on the shelf. This would be preposterous,” she said, dismissing claims that Hannah had engaged in activities against Islam.

The judge also rejected Musa’s argument that his position as former IGP gave him freedom to speak on matters of national or religious importance without accountability.

“Freedom of expression does not grant carte blanche to make statements without due care, responsibility, or accountability,” she said.

Hannah, who is also a former youth and sports minister, expressed relief at the ruling, saying it cleared her name after six years of defamatory allegations circulating online and in the media.

Her legal team included Datuk S. Ambiga, Sangeet Kaur Deo, Lim Wei Jiet, and Lee Guo Wen, while Musa was represented by Nur Jehan Abu Bakar.