Judicial commissioner Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh made the decision after taking into account the failure of the defendants – Hadijah Mohamed Mokhtar and daughter Nur Shazleen Anis Mohd Yusoff – to be in court for the hearing of the case.
He said the court also took into account the implications of the slander by the defendants on Maria.
The defendants, he said, had uploaded defamatory statements concerning the actress on their Instagram accounts.
“The first defendant (Hadijah) has 17,300 followers on her Instagram, while the second defendant (Shazleen) has about 13,000 followers,” Wan Farid said.
The court ordered Hadijah to pay damages of RM300,000 and Shazleen RM100,000 to Maria, whose real name is Maria Faridah Atienza.
The two women were also ordered to pay costs of RM50,000 to the actress.
Maria, represented by lawyer Tengku Haris Tengku Rostam, was not in court today.
Hadijah and Shazleen were represented by lawyer Hermes Media Putra Ibrahim.
The court issued a full judgment on the case on Nov 7 last year after both defendants failed to comply with court orders, including by not attending court proceedings.
In the judgment, the court, among others, issued an order for the two defendants to publish an apology, with the contents to be agreed on by the plaintiff before its publication, in all media, including Berita Harian, and posted on the defendants’ Facebook and Instagram accounts.
The court also dismissed Hadijah’s counter-claim against Maria for allegedly making defamatory statements on a television entertainment programme on Oct 25, 2015.
Maria, 48, sued Hadijah, better known as Karen Rahman, and Shazleen on Dec 30, 2016 for allegedly making defamatory statements against the actress, which were posted on Instagram and Facebook and published in Berita Harian.
In the statement of claim, Maria said she received several slanderous SMS messages from Hadijah, and her photographs were used for the purpose of promoting Hadijah’s KR Beauty Care products, although Hadijah was prohibited from doing so.
Maria claimed that her reputation and career as an actress were tainted as a result of the defamatory statements.