PUTRAJAYA, Oct 20 — The Court of Appeal today cited technical issues when it struck out an appeal by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to continue with his RM100 million defamation suit against Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for calling him a homosexual in 2005.
Anwar (picture) had appealed against a High Court ruling in 2007 which threw out his case.
Today, the Court of Appeal allowed an application by V.K. Lingam, counsel for Dr Mahathir, to strike out the appeal based on technical defects.
Justice Abdul Malik Ishak, who sat with Justices Azhah Ma’ah and Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad, ruled that Anwar’s appeal was defective because it was not prepared in Bahasa Malaysia. Anwar’s lawyer also failed to sign the appeal memorandum.
Abdul Malik said the decision of the Court of Appeal was made after it had perused through the written submissions with a fine tooth comb.
The court also dismissed a request by Anwar for an extension to file a fresh application in Bahasa Malaysia.
Anwar had filed the suit in 2006 against his former boss after Dr Mahathir spoke publicly at a human rights conference about the opposition leader being homosexual and a sodomist.
Dr Mahathir had allegedly portrayed Anwar as a person with no morals, according to the former DPM’s suit.
In 2007, the original suit was struck out by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
The High Court had ruled in 2007 that Anwar’s suit was unsustainable and that Dr Mahathir’s remarks were fair comment made in the public interest.
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