PM Goh files appeal in JBJ defamation case

PRIME Minister Goh Chok Tong is appealing against the High Court judgment awarding him $20,000 in damages from Workers' Party chief, J. B. Jeyaretnam, who defamed him at a WP election rally on Jan 1, this year.

Lawyers for Mr Goh, who was also awarded 60 per cent of his costs, confirmed yesterday that the appeal was filed on Wednesday.

It is likely to be heard in the Court of Appeal in February or March, legal sources said.

Mr Jeyaretnam told Reuter news agency yesterday he had not been told officially the basis of Mr Goh's appeal.

But it could be only over the size of the damages awarded to the PM, he said.

He also said he had not decided if he would appeal, but he would bring back his Queen's Counsel in London, Mr George Carman, to fight the PM's appeal.

Mr Jeyaretnam told the Jan 1 rally that his team-mate contesting in Cheng San GRC, Mr Tang Liang Hong, had placed before him two police reports the latter made against Mr Goh and his people.

He was ordered to pay one-tenth of the $200,000 in damages sought by Mr Goh plus part of the costs by Justice S. Rajendran who ruled last month that the words he used at the rally were defamatory.

The judge rejected the argument by Mr Goh's lawyer, Queen's Counsel Thomas Shields, that the words gave the impression that the PM was guilty of committing the offences of criminal defamation and criminal conspiracy against Mr Tang.

But he ruled that they would convey the lesser meaning that the PM, who called Mr Tang an anti-Christian Chinese chauvinist, could be investigated for doing something which might be wrong.

The verdict was criticised by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in a press statement which said that the High Court had done little to overcome its reputation of being improperly compliant to the interests of the ruling People's Action Party.

Another human rights group, Amnesty International, noted that last month's verdict could inhibit freedom of expression and deter those seeking to express dissenting political opinions peacefully.

It will issue a fuller statement on the case today, but will withhold the report filed by Canadian judge Paul Bentley, its observer at the hearing in August.

His report will be made public only after the Court of Appeal here has delivered its verdict on Mr Tang's appeals heard last month, said Mr Tim Parritt from Amnesty's secretariat in London.

Mr Tang has appealed against the $8.075 million in damages he has to pay for defaming the PM and 10 other PAP leaders before, during and after the General Election in January.