The Federal Court, the highest court of Malaysia, unanimously dismissed an appeal filed by Raub Australian Gold Mining (RAGM), a gold mining company that had sued activist Sherly Hue for defamation. Hue is part of the resistance against the company´s operations in Bukit Koman, Pahang State.

The Court´s decision issued in mid-February, which puts an end to the suit that started in 2013, agreed with the previous decisions of the High Court and the Court of Appeal of Malaysia. Sherly is the Vice Chairperson of Bukit Koman Ban Cyanide Committee, created in 2006 to resist the factory that eventually began operations in 2009...

The activist had been accused by the company for allegedly defaming them in two press statements where, according to the company, Sherly had linked the operations of the factory with health effects on the local population. The Federal Court ruled that in one of the cases, the words of the defendant to the press were not defamatory and in the second case the company could not even prove that Sherly had made that statement in the first place. This is what lawyer Jessica Binwani, one of the legal advisers of the case, said to Real World Radio in an interview conducted by our colleague Theiva Lingam, of Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific...