MALAYSIA: Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh has been awarded RM400,000 (approximately S$121,426) in damages after winning a defamation lawsuit against Universiti Utara Malaysia lecturer Kamarul Zaman Yusoff.
The decision was delivered on 30 May 2025 by High Court judge Aliza Sulaiman in Kuala Lumpur.
The damages pertain to two Facebook posts made by Kamarul in May 2017. Aliza ordered RM200,000 in general and aggravated damages for each post.
Yeoh, who is also the member of Parliament for Segambut, had filed the suit in 2022.
The posts in question included accusations that Yeoh was pushing a “Christian agenda” using her political position, referencing her biography Becoming Hannah: A Personal Journey.
Court rules posts portrayed Yeoh as a religious threat and abuser of political position
The judge found that both posts were defamatory, portraying Yeoh as a threat to Islam and accusing her of abusing her political role to promote Christianity.
“In Malaysia’s multi-religious society, such accusations can expose someone to hatred, ridicule, and contempt,” said Aliza in her judgment.
Kamarul had relied on the legal defences of justification, fair comment, and qualified privilege.
However, the judge ruled that none of these defences were successfully established.
Furthermore, Yeoh had pleaded malice, and the court was satisfied that this had been proven on the balance of probabilities.
Aliza stated that even if the defences had merit, the defendant’s actions displayed malice.
She said if Kamarul truly believed Yeoh had committed an offence, he should have lodged a police report rather than publishing the allegations on Facebook.
The court also rejected the defence’s argument that the first post targeted the Democratic Action Party (DAP) rather than Yeoh personally.
“The title of the article made the target unmistakable, and even the defendant’s own pleadings identified the plaintiff by name,” Aliza noted.
She emphasised that the court must consider how an ordinary reader would interpret the statements rather than the writer’s own interpretation.
Kamarul intends to appeal
In doing so, the court concluded that an average reader would believe Yeoh was unlawfully promoting Christianity and, by implication, committing a criminal act.
Although the court granted damages and an injunction restraining Kamarul and his associates from republishing the statements, it denied Yeoh’s request for a public apology.
The judge explained that a compelled apology could be perceived as insincere.
Additionally, the court awarded RM80,000 in legal costs to Yeoh.
It is understood that Kamarul, who did not attend the court proceedings, intends to appeal the decision.
In a Facebook post on 30 May, following the court’s judgment, Yeoh expressed her gratitude to judge Aliza for a decision that, in her words, “finally brings vindication to years of me enduring this false allegation about my book and my faith.”
She also thanked her legal team and all witnesses who testified during the trial.
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