PENGHINAAN PIHAK PAS..!!!

Friday, 27 January 2012

High court orders Amizudin to face contempt of court hearing on March 2

By M.MAGESWARI

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has ordered blogger Amizudin Ahmat to appear on March 2 for contempt of court proceedings over a defamation suit filed by Infor mation, Commu ni cations and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

Justice Zabariah Mohd Yusof ordered Amizudin to file an affidavit-in-reply for the hearing proper by Feb 10 and to hand over a copy to Dr Rais.

“You must get a lawyer within the time,” the judge told him yesterday.

Amizudin applied to the judge for an adjournment saying that he only received the notice on the matter last Wednesday and that he had never attempted to escape from being served the court papers for the proceedings.

Upon hearing this, Justice Zabariah told Amizudin that she had been informed that Dr Rais’ lawyer was having difficulty serving the papers on him.

She also added that the case was mentioned before her several times.

Amizudin said he was shocked to learn that he had “disappeared” from an appellate court to avoid being served the papers.

Dr Rais’ lead counsel Datuk Seri Dr Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said this was a criminal matter and that they were making an application for the blogger to be sent to prison.

Justice Zabariah then explained to Amizudin that he was accused of breaching a court order, which had issued an injunction preventing him from publishing any similar defamatory words against the plaintiff in his blog.

“That (the injunction) is based on what is agreed between the parties. Because of your own conduct, you are said to have breached a court order,” she added.

Justice Zabariah also asked Dr Rais to reply to the the blogger’s affidavit by Feb 24.

Dr Rais, 70, had filed the application on Nov 10, last year, for a committal order against Amizudin for being in contempt of court.

Dr Rais, who won his defamation suit at the High Court on July 4, last year, had been awarded RM300,000 after the blogger implied that the minister had raped his Indonesian maid.

The Court of Appeal had on last Wednesday upheld the High Court’s decision.

It said that the award was not high in view of Dr Rais’ high social standing.

It, however, reduced the costs from RM100,000 to RM50,000.

Dr Rais filed the suit against Amizudin on Jan 31 last year, saying that the blogger had published a defamatory article under the heading Hei Pak Menteri ... mana mau lari ... (Hey Mr Minister.... where do you want to run to) in his blog on Dec 28, 2010.
- http://thestar.com.my

posted from Bloggeroid

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