KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here today allowed an application by Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Razarudin Husain to commence a second committal proceeding against blogger Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris for violating the terms of his apology previously ordered by the court.
The application is related to a RM3 million lawsuit filed by Razarudin against Wan Muhammad Azri, also known as Papagomo, over alleged defamation, which also involved Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Judicial Commissioner Gan Techiong decided the matter after hearing the submissions by lawyers Raam Kumar and Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali, representing Razarudin and Wan Muhammad Azri, respectively.
“The inter-parte (both parties) hearing for the committal order is set for June 30, at 10 am, and the presence of the defendant (Wan Muhammad Azri) is mandatory,“ said the judge.
The court also ordered Wan Muhammad Azri to file the affidavit-in-reply on or before May 23, while Razarudin was given until June 6 to do so. They are also ordered to submit the written submissions on or before June 20.
Raam Kumar, in his submission, said that argued that Wan Muhammad Azri should have remained silent after the apology was made in court on April 30.
“On May 1, the defendant deliberately published a video via TikTok (Papa Azri) and YouTube (Sir Azri), and the statement contradicted the written apology that had been agreed to in the previous committal order.
“The apology was not sincere and was not published through the same social media account as ordered by the court. The apology on social media, accompanied by the background music of ‘Maafkan Kami’ from a clip from the film ‘Pendekar Bujang Lapok’ directed by the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee, was a joke,“ said the lawyer.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Rafique said his client had no intention of defying the court’s order and that the apology had already been posted on the defendant’s social media accounts and reported by the media.
Last Monday (May 5), Razarudin filed a notice of an ex-parte application seeking a committal order for Muhammad Rafique to be arrested and brought to court and imprisoned for contempt of court.
Razarudin filed the application on the grounds that Wan Muhammad Azri failed to comply with the conditions to delete the publication of videos dated Jan 14 and 15, related to defamation suit filed against him, in addition to not posting the apology that was read out in court last April 30 on his social media platforms YouTube, TikTok, X and Telegram.
On Feb 10 this year, the court granted Razarudin permission to commence committal proceedings against Wan Muhammad Azri for allegedly failing to comply with the injunction order on January 10 by posting about Razarudin on the YouTube, TikTok, X and Telegram applications.
However, on April 30, Wan Muhammad Azri issued an unreserved apology to Razarudin for violating the injunction order.
The injunction prohibits Wan Muhammad Azri or his agents from publishing or disseminating defamatory content in any form concerning Razarudin, whether in his official capacity as IGP or as an individual. This includes written, verbal, videos, online or instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram
The court also ordered Wan Muhammad Azri to retract and delete videos posted on Dec 14,15, 20 and 22 last year on his YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Telegram and X accounts, which were deemed defamatory.
