KOTA KINABALU: The Court of Appeal will hear on Nov 18 an appeal by former chief minister Yong Teck Lee against a High Court judgment ordering him to pay RM1 million in damages to another CM Harris Salleh for defamation.
Hearing had earlier been scheduled to start on July 15 but was postponed after one of the three judges who sat for the case, Justice Clement Allan Skinner, withdrew on the grounds that he had, while still practising, represented Yong in a case.
The other judges Justices Lim Yee Lan and Mah Weng Kwai will continue to hear the case with another judge.
Harris, who was Sabah chief minister from 1976 to 1985, had in 2011 sued Yong (1996-1998) for RM50 million for allegedly insinuating that he (Harris) was involved in causing the `Double Six’ plane crash that killed another chief minister Tun Mohd Fuad Stephens.
Stephens and 10 others were killed when a Nomad aircraft owned by Sabah Air crashed on June 6, 1976 in Sembulan here.
Harris had named Yong and his political party Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) as the first and second defendant, respectively.
On Feb 29 last year, High Court judge Abdul Rahman Sebli ordered Yong, who is SAPP president, to pay Harris RM1 million damages.
The judge held that Yong had `crossed the line’ in insinuating that Harris was involved in causing the `Double Six” tragedy.
Justice Abdul Rahman had also ruled that the use of the words “crime and assassination” by Yong was defamatory to Harris and had provoked speculations that Harris had known in advance that something sinister would happen to the aircraft and that he had left Stephens to die so that he could become the chief minister.
Harris was represented by counsel Yunof Maringking while Yong’s counsel was Simon Shim.
SAPP sells building
Meanwhile, in a related development SAPP was reported to have sold its three-storey headquarters at the Bornion Business Centre in Luyang here in order to pay Harris.
According to a report in the local Daily Express, the sale was made last year following a court order for immediate payment to Harris. SAPP was allowed by the new owner to occupy the building until the May 5 polls were over.
SAPP had since moved out and now set up office at a premises in Taman Antarabangsa in Likas.
Yong formed SAPP on the eve of the 1994 general election after ditching Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).
The party went into political wilderness after withdrawing from Barisan Nasional, after winning four state and two parliamentary seats in the 2008 general election.
In the May general elections the party fielded candidates in almost all the state and parliamentary constituencies but lost all.
Joseph Bingkasan
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