KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 9): DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng has filed a bankruptcy notice against Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin over last month's High Court decision ordering the former prime minister to pay Lim RM1.35 million in damages in a defamation lawsuit.

The notice was filed by Lim’s lawyer from Guok Partnership on Monday. Muhyiddin’s solicitor from Chethan Jethwani filed a notice of stay of execution later in the day.

Lim’s lawyer Guok Ngeok Seng, when contacted, confirmed the filing of the both notices.

The former finance minister and ex-Penang chief minister was seeking to enforce the payment of the RM1.35 million damages that remain unpaid by Muhyiddin plus an additional RM50,000 in costs.

In its stay notice, Chethan Jethwani said the sum awarded by the court was large and the former prime minister was willing to pay 50% of the sum to Lim’s solicitors to be held in a fixed deposit.

On Nov 8, the High Court ordered Muhyiddin to pay RM1.05 million in general damages over three articles published by Muhyiddin, and another RM150,000 each in aggravated and exemplary damages.

Besides this, the court also directed the Bersatu president to pay RM50,000 in costs and ordered him to remove the three defamatory articles which touched on tax breaks for Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary’s charity foundation Yayasan Albukhary.

Judge Roz Mawar Rozain in her decision said Lim had proven his case on the balance of probabilities against the Bersatu chief.

“This has been a case of considerable public importance, involving, as it does, two prominent political figures, and touching on sensitive issues of race and religion in our multicultural society. The evidence has demonstrated clearly that the allegations made by the defendant were not only false, but potentially harmful to our nation’s social fabric,” she said.

Roz Mawar also dismissed Muhyiddin’s defence of justification, fair comment and qualified privilege, among others, because the court viewed the Bersatu leader's statements as not based on “true factual foundation”.

The judge said Muhyiddin had the resources at his disposal to verify the facts, but did not do so.

Roz Mawar also said that Muhyiddin had “deliberately” mixed his allegations with “inflammatory references to race and religion” by stressing Yayasan Albukhary’s role in helping Muslims through its charity work and that it was timed or calculated to deflect attention from his abuse of power and money-laundering charges.