KUALA LUMPUR – The high court dismissed former Community Communications Department (J-Kom) assistant officer Abdul Wahab Abdul Kadir Jilani’s injunction application today, ordering him to pay RM10,000 to Bersatu information committee member Badrul Hisham Shaharin, also known as Chegubard.
In her verdict delivered this morning, judge Roz Mawar Rozain found that Wahab had failed to substantiate the “real risk” for Badrul to repeat the alleged defamatory statement.
Before the verdict, Wahab’s lawyer, Arief Firdaus Ashikin, argued that Badrul’s statement was defamatory and had led to public mockery of his client.
“The defendant, Badrul, implicated my client in his statement, alleging that my client was engaged in homosexual activity. However, my client was actually a victim, not a participant, in said activity,” he said.
He also requested that the court order Badrul to remove his statements from his Facebook page until the case is resolved.
During Arief’s submissions, the court was presented with visual evidence, including infamous snippets from a video call conversation between Wahab and former J-Kom director-general Datuk Mohammad Agus Yusoff, which circulated on social media last year.
The lawyer also asserted that while the video, also shared on Badrul’s Facebook page, is indeed authentic, the audio portion is not.
However, Badrul’s lawyers, Muizzudin Schann Feizal and Zol Azrai Zolkapfli, defended their client’s statement, stating that it was not defamatory.
They highlighted that the plaintiff had failed to fulfil the necessary elements required under Order 29 of the Rules of Court 2012 when applying for an injunction.
Subsequently, the court scheduled June 4 for Badrul to file his defence against Wahab’s claims, with June 18 set for the plaintiff to file his reply. Additionally, July 3 was earmarked for case management.
The judge has also scheduled the case trial for three days in September next year: September 2, 3, and 4.
Wahab had filed the defamation suit against Badrul in January, claiming that the latter repeatedly accused Wahab of being a “bad and immoral Muslim” as well as taking part in “unnatural sexual activities”.
In the suit, Wahab had demanded for Badrul to pay him RM5 million in damages, a public apology published for 30 days consecutively in several newspapers, the removal of videos relating to him, and to stop republishing defamatory statements.
Wahab had been embroiled in controversy after an indecent video supposedly featuring him and Agus made the rounds on social media. Subsequently, he was subjected to public mockery and trolls on social media. – May 20, 2024
