Court postpones Zahida's appeal, orders her to pay RM5,000 costs

PUTRAJAYA: Actress Zahida Mohamed Rafik (pix) was ordered by the Court of Appeal here today to pay RM5,000 costs to her former driver after the court postponed the hearing of her appeal over a defamation lawsuit.
A three-man bench led by Justice Datuk Lim Yee Lan postponed the hearing of Zahida's appeal after lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed informed the court that he was instructed by lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to seek for an adjournment of the hearing of the appeal, which was scheduled today.
He said Muhammad Shafee could not be present in court today because he had to attend to an ongoing criminal breach of trust trial at the Sessions Court in Butterworth.
The other judges on the panel were Datuk Dr Badariah Sahamid and Justice Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal.
Counsel Latheefa Koya, representing Noor Azman Azemi, requested RM5,000 costs, as they were not informed that Zahida's lawyer would be seeking for another adjournment today.
She said they did receive a letter from the appellant's counsel to seek to postpone the hearing and a letter from the court rejecting the postponement.
Wan Aizuddin argued that no costs should be given on the grounds that it was the first hearing date for the appeal and that Muhammad Shafee had to attend the trial at the Sessions Court which was a public interest case.
Justice Lim then said the court would give another date to hear the appeal, but fixed costs of RM5,000 to be paid to Noor Azman.
She also ordered the matter to go for case management today, during which the Court of Appeal deputy registrar set May 31 for hearing of the appeal.
Noor Azman sued Zahida claiming that the actress, who acted in Anak Mami The Movie, had wrongfully and with bad intention, given defamatory statements in an article published in a Malay tabloid on March 3, 2012 over the loss of RM200,000.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court in Feb last year ruled that defamation was successfully proven by Noor Azman on a balance of probabilities and ordered Zahida to pay RM150,000 in damages to Noor Azman. — Bernama