KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court today dismissed former attorney-general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali's RM10 million defamation suit against DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang.

Apandi had sued Lim over an article that questioned the former AG's role in aiding and abetting in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

Judge Datuk Azimah Omar in her decision said Lim had succeeded in justifying that he had qualified privilege when making those statements, as Datuk Seri Najib Razak was found guilty in 2020 in the RM42 million SRC International Sdn Bhd (1MDB's former subsidiary) criminal trial.

Apandi's suit centres on an article by Lim published in news portal Malaysiakini, titled "Dangerous fallacy to think Malaysia's on the road to integrity" on May 6, three years ago. 

The suit claimed the defendant had deliberately or indirectly implied that Apandi was involved in criminal activities, is someone who is unethical, immoral, incompetent, and lacked responsibility, knowledge, expertise and other professional ethics to hold the post of AG at the material time.

"The defendant was justified in his statement urging the plaintiff to answer why he had absolved Najib of the 1MDB fiasco in 2016," said Azimah.

She said the defendant voiced his thoughts to the public at large and exercised responsible journalism when making those remarks.

The court also ordered the plaintiff to pay RM80,000 in total costs to the defendant.

Earlier, Azimah was unhappy when Lim failed to attend the proceedings, saying the latter had disrespected the court.

"He is a defendant, he should attend these proceedings as this case involves him personally. I am not happy about it.

"I am ready to read my judgement… court is also tight with cases and this thing happened," she said before adjourning the proceedings.

Lim's lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo apologised to the court for the inconvenience.

"This is also my fault as I told my client that our presence is enough," she said.

The proceedings continued later with Lim attending the hearing via Zoom.

Azimah took almost three hours to read the written judgement.

Apandi, who is now a solicitor, claimed that Lim in his article published by news portal Malaysiakini implied that the plaintiff had a major role in aiding and abetting the 1MDB fiasco.

Apandi said the article had tainted his reputation by claiming that he was directly involved, assisted and abetted in the 1MDB scandal.