KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (AP) - Malaysia’s information minister has won a defamation suit against an opposition blogger over allegations that he raped his Indonesian housemaid.
Rais Yatim is the first senior government official to file a case against a blogger. Malaysian authorities often accuse opposition-linked blogs of spreading lies to tarnish the government’s image.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court ordered Amizudin Ahmat on Tuesday to pay 400,000 ringgit ($132,000) to Rais for posting a blog entry in December that implied that Rais had raped his Indonesian maid.
Rais called the verdict “a milestone in the apportionment of justice.”
Judge Zabariah Yusof says the allegation could have destroyed Rais’ reputation and undermined relations between Malaysia and Indonesia.
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