KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysia blogger has been granted an interim stay by the country's High Court on Thursday. Blogger Amizudin Mamat, who was sentenced to three months' jail for contempt of court, received reprieve, at least for now, in a defamation case against him. Justice Datin Zabariah Mohd Yusof granted the interim stay pending a full hearing of Amizudin's stay application on August 28. She made the decision in chambers in the presence of lawyers R. Sivarasa and Latheefa Koya, representing Amizudin, and Datuk Seri Shafee Abdullah, who represented Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim. Amizudin filed the application on August 10 after the High Court sentenced him to three months' jail after finding him finding him guilty of contempt of court by further publishing 11 articles which defamed Rais. The 11 articles were published after the court, on July 19 last year, ruled in Rais' favor over the suit he filed against Azimudin, who was also ordered to pay RM300,000 in damages and RM100,000 in costs to the minister. Rais filed the suit on Jan 31, 2011, against Amizudin, 42, who is a Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Youth Committee member, for defamation over an article posted on the latter's blogsite, sharpshooterblogger.blogspot.com, on or about December 28, 2010.
