KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 — The High Court today ordered that Utusan Malaysia pay RM60,000 in damages to PAS lawmaker Khalid Samad over a defamatory article published two years ago.

The Shah Alam MP (picture) had on September 30 won the case, after suing the publishers of the Umno-owned daily last year over the article “Zulkifli bidas Pak Janggut (Zulkifli blasts the Bearded Man)”.

The article was published in September 2009.

Commercial High Court judge Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham ordered Utusan and the group’s editor-in-chief Datuk Abdul Aziz Ishak pay Khalid the amount in damages for publishing the article without first verifying the veracity of its contents.