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Raja Petra Bin Raja Kamarudin (left), editor of the popular Malaysia Today news Web site, was told on Thursday to pay one million ringgit in libel damages to Abdul Azim Mohamad Zabidi, treasurer of the ruling United Malays National Organisation. --PHOTO: NSTP
A MALAYSIAN court has ordered a prominent online commentator to pay more than RM 1 million to a senior ruling party politician, a court official said on Friday, the latest in a series of troubles for bloggers. Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin, editor of the popular Malaysia Today news website, was told on Thursday to pay RM1 million in libel damages to Abdul Azim Mohamad Zabidi, treasurer of the ruling United Malays National Organisation, said a court official who declined to be named because she was not authorised to speak to the media. Details of Raja Petra's commentary about Mr Abdul Azim were not immediately known. However, Raja Petra, one of the country's best-known online writers, frequently accuses senior government officials and corporate figures of corruption and other crimes. He has also claimed that Prime Minister Najib Razak, who took office on Friday, and his wife were linked to the 2006 slaying of a Mongolian woman. The couple has denied the accusations, dismissing them as 'lies'. Critical online commentary has mushroomed in the country as an alternative to the country's government-linked mainstream. But recently bloggers have increasingly faced detention and court action by government officials. They accuse the bloggers of spreading false information and rumors. Mr Abdul Azim had claimed several articles published on Raja Petra's website defamed him, the court official said. She could not give any further details. Raja Petra and Mr Abdul Azim could not immediately be reached. Raja Petra has already been charged with sedition and was separately detained for two months last year under a strict security law that allows the government to indefinitely hold people who are seen as a threat to national security. Last year, in the country's first successful libel case involving online writing, Raja Petra was ordered to pay RM4 million to a state-run university and its vice-chancellor for publishing a defamatory article. The court also told an opposition-run newspaper to pay RM3 million in damages for reprinting the article. Raja Petra and the paper refused to pay the amount, claiming the case was a political move to silence them. -- AP READ THE ARTICLES HERE A scam, by any other name, smells just as foul
The new Member of Parliament for Putrajaya, Azim Zabidi Zul Rafique and Azim Zabidi, PLEASE go to hell! Umno, AG and PDRM checkmated 'Sultan' Zulhasnan, the RM700 million man
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The Blogs 
Kiss your ass good by, my deviant brother
I have dictated to Allah to make me innocent
Let Him try keep me away from government
Let anyone try to stand in my way
And I obliterate you with my ISA
Let me tell you all that resistance is futile
The evidence against me will be rendered sterile
And all that is left will be made to disappear
Now I can clean up and wipe all stains clear
There will be spins too boost my image sky high
UMNO is still be the best gang that duit can buy
You all will have to prostrate and do things my way
And sing praises that I am great and semua-nya OK!