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Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng will testify in the hearing of assessment of damages in his defamation suit against blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin over allegation of corruption in the RM6.3 billion Penang undersea tunnel project.
Lim’s counsel, Simon Murali told reporters that the assessment of damages is regarding the judgment in default awarded by the High Court to Lim on Feb 28.
“The court has set Aug 21 for hearing and we told the court that so far only one plaintiff’s witness will testify and that is Lim himself,” he said after the case management before judge Rohani Ismail in chambers today.
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Lim had also attempted to serve the writ and statement of claim to Raja Petra by personal service at the blogger’s last known address which was obtained from the National Registration Department and the Election Commission but was unsuccessful.
– Bernama
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/532541
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V Anbalagan -February 28, 2020 12:23 PM
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng has obtained a judgment in default against blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin for defamation over allegations of corruption in an undersea tunnel project by the state government.
Lawyer Kok Yuen Lin, who appeared for Lim, said High Court judge Rohani Ismail gave the order in chambers as the blogger did not contest the suit.
“The court will assess the quantum of damages later,” she told reporters.
On Sept 6 last year, Lim filed the suit for damages, a front page apology and an injunction to prevent Raja Petra from repeating his allegations, which were contained in a series of articles “From the MACC Files” published in February and March (2019).
Lim attempted to serve the writ and statement of claim to Raja Petra – frequently referred to by his initials RPK – by personal service at his last known address obtained from the National Registration Department and the Election Commission.
After the unsuccessful attempt, he applied to the court for substitute service where he placed a notice of the suit in three newspapers.
Raja Petra failed to respond to the notice by Feb 10 to contest the suit, leading Lim to file a judgment in default.
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In the statement of claim, Lim sought exemplary damages on the grounds that Raja Petra “must have obtained profit from the huge volume of readership on all the articles”. and such profits might exceed the amount of damages that could be awarded to Lim.
Lim, who is also the former finance minsiter, said Raja Petra was “relentless in his campaign of purported lies and character assassination” against him.
“The 10 articles received wide publicity and broad coverage to the extent that it became the subject of discussion in the public domain, and that the statements were read by multitudes who had access to and browsed Malaysia Today,” Lim said.
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weehingthong 