The appeal was filed yesterday by law firm David Gurupatham & Koay, acting for the retired sessions court judge.

The suit is related to three articles published in Sarawak Report, including one titled “How AG’s Office Connived to Prevent a Second Post-mortem on Kevin Morais – Exclusive Expose”.

On May 2, judicial commissioner Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah Raja Mohzan rejected the suit with costs of RM15,000 after finding that Mabel had failed to translate the allegedly defamatory articles into Malay.

He said the requirement for complete pleadings in the Malay language was tritely attributed to its supremacy as the national language.

Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin said the relevant provisions were enshrined in Article 152 of the Federal Constitution as well as Section 8 of the National Language Act 1963/67 and Order 92 Rule 1 of the Rules of Court 2012.

He said the article clearly suggested that the plaintiff was involved in a conspiracy of some kind at the highest level to cheat the family of the late deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais of their right to a second independent post-mortem report.

However, Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin said the plaintiff was not entitled to any compensation for damages resulting from the articles as a result of the failure to provide a certified translation in Malay.

Mabel filed the suit against Rewcastle Brown in 2019 over articles linking her to alleged text messages sent to the family of Kevin, who was murdered in September 2015.

She denied the alleged claim in the article and initiated the suit to seek damages from Rewcastle Brown, as well as a court order for the article to be removed from the Sarawak Report website.