Abdul Aziz Isa, who is special assistant to Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH) chief Chong Chieng Jen, said he never received the writ of summons and statement of claims (SoC) issued by Azril & Associates on behalf of Kamarul Zaman Yusoff.
Aziz said he only knew about the judgment through social media when Kamarul posted the news on his Facebook account stating that such a judgment had been entered against him by a High Court on Nov 6.
“The news caught me by surprise,” he said in a statement.
Aziz added that he was in the dark as to how a judgment in default of appearance had been entered upon him when “I had never received the writ of summons and SoC in the first place”.
Aziz said he had consulted his lawyers to make an application to set aside the judgement.
Kamarul, a lecturer with Universiti Utara Malaysia, said yesterday he had been awarded RM8 million in damages in his defamation suit against Aziz.
In a posting on Facebook, Kamarul said the Kuala Lumpur High Court had also awarded RM10,000 in legal costs, and that Aziz was to pay interest of 4% a year on the judgment sum until the damages were fully paid.
Kamarul said Aziz had defamed him through social media postings and opinion pieces that questioned Kamarul’s academic credentials and implied that he was afraid of Christians.
Kamarul had also filed similar suits against Chong, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang, Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng and Ipoh Timur MP Wong Kah Woh.
Meanwhile, lawyer M Visvanathan said Aziz would have no problem setting aside the verdict as it was erroneous to award a colossal sum without going through an assessment process.
“Damages must be assessed by calling witnesses,” he said, adding that defamation claims were classified as unliquidated damages.
He said High Court rules also allowed the setting aside when the damages were “ridiculous and outrageous.”
“The next of kin of inmates who lose their lives while under police custody are at most given RM400,000 in damages. Such an award for loss of reputation is ridiculous,” he added.
The highest payment for loss of reputation over the last five years went to opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim who obtained RM951,000 against controversial blogger Papagomo in 2017.