The ruling, at the Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court, was made in favour of Hadi by Judge Noor Hafizah Mohd Salim. However, she did not specify the grounds for the judgment, nor did she award any costs against the plaintif, Marcel Jude Joseph, Malay Mail Online (MMO) reported today.
On Aug 17 this year, Marcel had won judgment in default in the Sessions Court against Hadi for comments the latter made in a report, “Christianity rejected by the educated, says Hadi” published on Jan 18 by Free Malaysia Today (FMT), which was sourced from Harakah, the PAS organ.
According to MMO, the court had also ordered Hadi to pay Marcel damages for interfering with his constitutional right to freedom of religion under Article 11 of the Federal Constitution.
The court’s written judgment at the time specificed that Hadi pay the following relief to Marcel:
- Damages, against the Defendant (Hadi) in the sum to be assessed, for interference with the Constitutional right of the Plaintiff (Marcel) to freedom of religion under Article 11 of the Federal Constitution.
- Damages for blasphemy against the Defendant in the sum to be assessed.
- Punitive damages against the Defendant.
- Statutory interest and cost.
On Aug 30, Hadi filed the application to set aside the judgment.
In court today, Hadi’s lawyer, Hamid Ismail, said the alleged defamatory statements in the article, attributed to Hadi, were made in Peninsular Malaysia, hence, any action against his client should not be taken in Sabah.
In accepting today’s ruling, Marcel said that while he does not agree with the verdict, he accepted the judgment and thanked the court for not allowing the costs of RM20,000 that Hadi had claimed from him.
“As a Christian, I forgive Hadi for his erroneous and false comments but that does not mean I am backing down from my civil rights in this matter because this kind of Christian bashing or the faiths of all other religions must not be tolerated,” he was quoted as saying by MMO.
Marcel added that following the ruling today a full trial needs to be held, though it has not yet been determined by the court.
“The matter will now proceed for trial. I look forward to the trial of this matter to protect the Constitutional rights of all Sabahans and Malaysians to freedom of religion and the protection against blasphemy,” Marcel said, according to MMO.
Hamid denied this was the case as, he claimed, the court had struck off the civil suit on July 28 because its writ of summons had expired on July 26 this year and no renewal of it had been filed.
“I’m surprised he said there would be a trial as the court had struck off the suit. That was the main ground for me to ask for the court to set aside the default judgement,” Hamid told MMO.
Marcel responded to this, saying that the civil suit filed in January had not been struck off.
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