Egg importer loses defamation suit against Azmin Ali as judge says only Deepak was mentioned

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — The High Court today dismissed egg importer J&E Advance Tech Sdn Bhd’s defamation lawsuit against Perikatan Nasional information chief Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.

High Court judge Leong Wai Hong ruled that while Azmin had repeatedly mentioned businessman Deepak Jaikishan’s name, he did not refer to the company by name.

Leong also ordered J&E Advance Tech to pay RM50,000 in legal costs to Azmin.

In his decision, the judge said the two main issues were whether Azmin’s statements defamed J&E and if they had referred to J&E, which he found not to be the case for both.

The judge said Azmin’s statements had referred to Deepak, but not the plaintiff J&E.

He also said J&E, which was the only one suing Azmin, failed to objectively show the statements had referred to it when it was not named.

“Having perused the impugned statements, it is clear it refers expressly to a person called Deepak; the plaintiff is J&E Advance Tech. Nowhere in the impugned statements is J&E Advance Tech mentioned.

“Further, applying the test, I’m of the view it will be unreasonable for any person to believe the plaintiff was mentioned in the impugned statement, as this is not a case when no one was mentioned in the impugned statement. The defendant had expressly mentioned Deepak, not once but many times,” the judge said.

The judge then read out excerpts from Azmin’s alleged defamatory statement where Deepak’s name was mentioned. In the excerpt read out by the judge, Deepak’s name was mentioned six times. In the part not read out, there are two more mentions of Deepak’s name.

The judge noted that Rajesh Jaikishan — who is J&E’s general manager and also Deepak’s brother — had confirmed in court that Deepak is not a director or shareholder in J&E.

The judge read out notes of proceedings in this lawsuit, where Rajesh had testified as a witness for J&E and also confirmed that Deepak had no legal ties to the company.

In the lawsuit, Rajesh and Deepak had appeared as witnesses for J&E, while Azmin testified in his own defence.

Azmin is currently Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s Selangor chief and also the Hulu Kelang state assemblyman.

On April 12, 2023, J&E filed the lawsuit against Azmin over his alleged defamatory remarks on March 11, 2023 in a speech at the “Ceramah Perdana: Solidariti Menentang Kezaliman” event at Taman Melewar, Kuala Lumpur.

In the lawsuit, J&E — which was the sole Malaysian company allowed to import eggs from India — is seeking compensation from Azmin and a court injunction to stop him from continuing to make the alleged defamatory statement or similar remarks.

In court documents for the lawsuit, J&E had claimed Azmin was referring to it as Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu had announced on March 8, 2023 that it was the only local company allowed to import eggs from India.

J&E had also said it had imported eggs from India as a temporary measure during festive periods to help resolve the egg shortage then in Malaysia.

Among other things, J&E had claimed that Azmin’s remarks were untrue as it said the company was never involved in any direct negotiations with the Malaysian government.

Azmin was previously reported as having defended himself in this defamation lawsuit by saying that his remarks were justified, and amounted to fair comment on matters of public interest.

Azmin had reportedly also said he had only questioned the government’s policies and questioned Deepak’s role in the project to import eggs. Azmin had also reportedly said he had not named J&E in his remarks and had not intended to defame anyone.