Rights group hails court rule

Rights group hails court rule

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A Malaysian rights group has hailed a High Court decision to strike out a million dollar defamation law suit against a United Nations special rapporteur, a report said on Sunday.

Musa Hitam, Human Rights Committee chairman of Malaysia was quoted by the New Sunday Times as saying the ruling would help maintain the image of the country's judiciary.

"This ruling will help improve the image of Malaysian judiciary," he said.

On Saturday, Judge R.K. Nathan struck out a 60 million ringgit (US$15.8 million) lawsuit against Param Cumaraswamy, adding that a World Court decision on his immunity was binding.

Nathan was quoted by The Star newspaper as saying an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dated on April 29, 1999 was binding.

MBf Capital Bhd. and MBf Northern Securities Sdn. Bhd. had claimed damages of 15 million ringgit each for slander and another 15 million ringgit each for libel over a Nov. 15, 1995 article in the International Commercial Litigation magazine.