PUTRAJAYA (May 14): The apex court has dismissed former attorney general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali’s application to pursue his appeal against the Court of Appeal’s (COA) decision in dismissing his RM10 million defamation suit against DAP veteran Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang.

Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who read the bench’s unanimous decision, said there were no novel issues which merited further review by the Federal Court of the COA's and High Court's decisions.

“There is nothing novel which merits further review by the Federal Court. And on first impression, the application has no chance of success,” she said, adding that it was not fit and proper.

The three-judge bench, which also included Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan and Datuk Abu Bakar Jais, awarded RM30,000 in cost subject to allocatur (permission to appeal).

Lawyers Liew Teck Huat and Rueben Mathiavaranam represented Apandi while Sangeet Kaur Deo appeared for Lim. The respective parties submitted for and against the appeal before the decision.

Lim was in attendance when the judgement was read out, but Apandi did not attend.

On Nov 2 last year, the COA had upheld a High Court decision that dismissed the defamation suit over an article Lim published in 2019 regarding the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

A three-member bench comprising judges Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, who chaired it, Datuk M Gunalan and Datuk Azmi Ariffin made the unanimous decision to quash Apandi's appeal.

Hadhariah, in reading out the judgement, said the High Court judge who dismissed Apandi's suit had not erred in law or in facts when dismissing the suit.

She also said that Lim had successfully raised the defence of justification and fair comment to ward off the suit.

Hadhariah said there was no merit in the appeal and that it was dismissed with cost.

The High Court judgement

Then High Court judge Datuk Azimah Omar (now a COA judge) dismissed the suit in 2022.

The suit revolved around Lim’s articles on the 1MDB scandal that were published in 2019. Apandi claimed that the articles had implied he abused or neglected his responsibilities as AG at the time.

Azimah ruled that the 1MDB debacle highlighted in Lim’s article was a matter of national interest and that it was within the duty of any member of the public, let alone a parliamentarian, to voice out one's dismay, especially after all channels of complaint were exhausted.

She also said that the public had absolute right to know of Apandi's "actions or inactions", which "directly or indirectly" lent a hand in covering up the 1MDB scandal and protecting the known personalities involved.

She also found Apandi to be disinterested under cross-examination about explaining his acceptance of a clarification by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak that the huge amount of money in Najib's bank account was a donation from a Saudi prince.