The High Court made the ruling in regards to Perkasa's attack against former judge VT Singham, while he was presiding Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's suit against Utusan Malaysia.
UPDATED
PETALING JAYA: Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali was today found guilty of contempt of court over his NGO’s attack on Justice VT Singham early this year.
Justice John Louis O’Hara sentenced him to one day jail and RM20,000 fine. This means he could be home by the end of office hours at 5pm today.
On Jan 8, Perkasa published an article penned by Zainuddin Salleh, which questioned Singham’s impartiality, his past judgments and also insinuated on his sexuality.
Zainuddin launched the attack against Singham as the latter was the presiding judge in the RM50 million defamation suit filed by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim against Utusan Malaysia.
Speaking on the matter, PKR lawyer Latheefa Koya said that they brought a committal proceedings against Ibrahim and article’s author for defaming Singham while the defamation suit was on-going.
“And today, Justice John Louis O’Hara found Ibrahim and Zainuddin guilty of contempt,” she said.
Zainuddin meanwhile was slapped with a four weeks jail term.
PKR legal counsel R Sivarasa said that in his verdict, Justice O’Hara described Perkasa’s outburst against Singham as an attack on judiciary’s integrity.
“O’Hara also said the criticism was very serious and scandalised the judiciary. On top of that, he also said that Perkasa was attempting to influence the outcome of the defamation suit by launching a personal attack against Singham,” said the Subang MP.
On why Ibrahim was also punished, Sivarasa said that the judge did not see the Perkasa chief distancing himself from the article published in his NGO’s website.
“The article was published on his NGO’s website. In addition, Ibrahim did not distance himself from the post and he did not take steps to remove the article,” said Sivarasa.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim’s lawyer Adnan Seman said that his client would be appealing against the sentencing, claiming that the former had no link to the website.
“It is not Perkasa’s official website and Ibrahim did not come up with the content. My client didn’t know about the content neither when it was produced.” he said.
UPDATED
PETALING JAYA: Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali was today found guilty of contempt of court over his NGO’s attack on Justice VT Singham early this year.Justice John Louis O’Hara sentenced him to one day jail and RM20,000 fine. This means he could be home by the end of office hours at 5pm today.
On Jan 8, Perkasa published an article penned by Zainuddin Salleh, which questioned Singham’s impartiality, his past judgments and also insinuated on his sexuality.
Zainuddin launched the attack against Singham as the latter was the presiding judge in the RM50 million defamation suit filed by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim against Utusan Malaysia.
Speaking on the matter, PKR lawyer Latheefa Koya said that they brought a committal proceedings against Ibrahim and article’s author for defaming Singham while the defamation suit was on-going.
“And today, Justice John Louis O’Hara found Ibrahim and Zainuddin guilty of contempt,” she said.
Zainuddin meanwhile was slapped with a four weeks jail term.
PKR legal counsel R Sivarasa said that in his verdict, Justice O’Hara described Perkasa’s outburst against Singham as an attack on judiciary’s integrity.
“O’Hara also said the criticism was very serious and scandalised the judiciary. On top of that, he also said that Perkasa was attempting to influence the outcome of the defamation suit by launching a personal attack against Singham,” said the Subang MP.
On why Ibrahim was also punished, Sivarasa said that the judge did not see the Perkasa chief distancing himself from the article published in his NGO’s website.
“The article was published on his NGO’s website. In addition, Ibrahim did not distance himself from the post and he did not take steps to remove the article,” said Sivarasa.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim’s lawyer Adnan Seman said that his client would be appealing against the sentencing, claiming that the former had no link to the website.
“It is not Perkasa’s official website and Ibrahim did not come up with the content. My client didn’t know about the content neither when it was produced.” he said.
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