PETALING JAYA, July 4 — Utusan Malaysia was today ordered to pay RM250,000 in restitution to former Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin over his successful defamation suit in August against the Umno-owned newspaper.
The amount was confirmed by Nizar’s lawyer, Fitri Asmun, as part of the High Court judgment on August 30 last year that found Utusan Malaysia liable of libel through an article it published on the Perak lawmakers tweets regarding the Sultan of Johor’s bid for the “WWW1” vehicle registration number.
“However, Justice Rosnaini (Saub) did not award aggravated damages,” he was quoted as saying.
Nizar had filed two suits on the matter in July 10 last year, against Utusan Melayu (the publishers of Utusan) and Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Berhad (TV3) claiming RM50 million in damages.
He alleged that Utusan Malaysia had defamed him with an article on May 30 last year while also claiming that TV3 did so during its 8pm Bulletin Utama news slot.
In April, TV3 mounted a successful defence against Nizar’s action, after High Court judge Datin Yeoh Wee Siam rejected the claim.
Aside from the RM250,000, Nizar was today also awarded RM30,000 in costs.
