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Judicial commissioner Mohd Arief Emran Arifin made the order after allowing a defamation suit filed by Mahfuz as the plaintiff against Sanusi as the defendant.
Lawyer Noorazmir Zakaria, who represented Mahfuz, said the court had ordered Sanusi to pay the damages within 14 days from today.
“The court also ordered the defendant (Sanusi) to write an apology to the plaintiff on the defendant’s Facebook page within 14 days, besides paying legal costs to the plaintiff amounting to RM15,000.
“Other orders imposed are an injunction restraining the defendant or his agents from publishing defamatory words against the plaintiff in the future,” he said when contacted by reporters via WhatsApp after the decision was announced via an online proceeding today.
The proceeding was also attended by Sanusi’s counsel Yusfarizal Yussoff and Mohd Faizi Che Abu.
The case was heard on Aug 26, with two plaintiff witnesses, including Mahfuz, and Sanusi testifying.
Mahfuz filed the suit on Oct 9, 2019, based on a post made by Sanusi on his Facebook account on July 30 the same year, which linked Mahfuz as the Pokok Sena MP to the issue of the transfer of a Sports Toto outlet to the area.
Mahfuz also claimed that Sanusi posted a seven-minute-57-second video on his Facebook account on July 27, 2019, which showed a group of individuals protesting the opening of a Sports Toto outlet in Pokok Sena while holding a banner bearing the plaintiff’s name.
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