KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang today won his defamation case against Utusan Malaysia’s publisher over the paper’s “Father Augustus Chen” report, and was awarded RM250,000 in damages by a High Court here.

High Court judge Datuk Yeoh Wee Siam ruled that Lim had successfully proven his case on the balance of probabilities, and found the Umno-owned daily’s publisher Utusan Melayu (M) Berhad liable for defaming the senior DAP leader.

“Court orders global sum of RM250,000 as general damages, aggravated damages, exemplary damages,” the judge said today, adding that interests would be set at five per cent per annum, while also ordering the publisher to pay RM25,000 in costs to the DAP parliamentary leader.

The full grounds of the judgment was not read out in court today but Yeoh said it will be made available to the lawyers.

When met outside the courtroom later, Utusan Malaysia’s lawyer Mohd Izral Khairy said he would have to seek his client’s instructions on whether to appeal today’s ruling.

Last September, 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 Minggu 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 August 21 this year, Lim as the plaintiff’s first witness had testified that the allegations were a “figment of imagination” and “blatant and outright lies”, also claiming that “Father Augustus Chen” was a “total invention” and the Utusan article was part of “a plot” against him and DAP leaders.

On September 26, Utusan Malaysia’s reporter Kasthuri K Manimaran insisted that the purported “Father Augustus Chen” figure exists, but admitted that she had never met or spoken personally to this person.

While saying she was unable to confirm if he was “fictitious”, Kasthuri denied she had done nothing to verify whether “Father Augustus Chen” truly existed, claiming that several former DAP members had told her of his existence.

Kasthuri, who wrote the allegedly defamatory report, also told the court of a rumour that DAP life advisor Dr Chen Man Hin was the same individual as the mysterious “Father Augustus Chen” figure.

But Chen told the court on October 3 that he is not “Father Augustus Chen” and did not know the individual who allegedly exists.

Lim’s lawyer Gobind Singh Deo had then said Chen’s testimony was important to prove that the so-called “Father Augustus Chen” is a fictitious character.