The court established that defamatory statements insinuating conspiracy to assassinate a political figure are actionable if they harm reputation, are made with malice, and aren't substantiated by truth.

[1] This is a clash between two ex-Chief Ministers of Sabah over two articles published in the Daily Express on 5 April 2010 and 9 April 2010 respectively which the plaintiff claims to be defamatory of him. The second defendant is a political party headed by the 1st defendant. The controversy was triggered by a speech delivered by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah ("Tengku Razaleigh") at the Hongkod Koisan KDCA Penampang, Sabah on 2 April 2010 and which was published in the Daily Express on 4 April 2010 with the caption "Invite saved my life: Razaleigh". The topic of the speech was "Minyak Sabah Untuk Siapa?" the relevant parts of which are the following:

"Apabila cakap hal minyak dan Sabah, tak dapat tiada saya mesti mengingat kembali peristiwa yang amat sedih yang berlaku di sini yang menimpa rakyat Sabah dan negeri Sabah terutama sekali. Saya ingat dalam bulan Jun tahun 76, satu kemalangan besar berlaku di Sabah. Umur saya panjang, orang kenalan saya yang saya sanjung tinggi umurnya pendek. Allahyarham Yang Amat Berhormat Tun Fuad Stephens dan anaknya sekali dengan pemimpin-pemimpin yang lain dari negeri Sabah dan juga pegawai-pegawai dari negeri Sabah dan dari kerajaan pusat bersekali dengan setiausaha sulit saya telah menjadi mangsa nahas apabila jatuhnya kapal terbang yang dinaiki mereka. Saya sendiri sudahpun menaiki pesawat berkenaan bersekali dengan Tun Rahman Yaakob dan bersama-sama dengan saya melawat Labuan dan juga Sabah ketika itu dan dengan Almarhum Tengku Arif Bendahara Pahang. Kita semua sudah "strapped" dah pakai tali pinggang kapalterbang. Saya duduk di belakang Allahyarham Tun Fuad Stephens, sebelah kanan saya Tun Rahman Yaakob, sebelah belakang saya Tengku Arif Bendahara Pahang. Tiba-tiba Datuk Harris yang pada masa itu menjadi Timbalan Ketua Menteri Sabah mengajak saya keluar dari kapalterbang, kerana dia kata elok kita ke Pulau Banggi melihat rancangan belaan sapi dari Australia di Pulau Banggi. Saya pun ajak Tun Rahman Yaakob dan Tengku Arif Bendahara bersama dengan saya turun kerana saya kata elok juga kita ikut Datuk Harris ke Pulau Banggi kerana saya nak tengok rancangan bela sapi, kita panggil lembu, di Pulau Banggi. Jadi kita pun ikut Datuk Harris ikut kapalterbang jenis yang sama Nomad, kita pergi ke Pulau Banggi."

[2] It is common ground that this is the context in which the impugned statements were made. It was a revelation by Tengku Razaleigh that minutes before the Nomad aircraft was due to take off from the Labuan airport and when he was already strapped to his seat, the plaintiff came over and invited him to visit Pulau Banggi, Kudat to see a cattle farm project. The plane later crashed near Sembulan, Kota Kinabalu killing all on board including the newly appointed Chief Minister, the late Tun Fuad Stephens and more than half of the Berjaya Cabinet Ministers.

[3] That was some 36 years ago. Some call it the double six tragedy while some others call it the triple six tragedy as it occurred on 6 June 1976. For purposes of this judgment I shall refer to the incident as the double six tragedy as that was how it was referred to throughout the trial. After the demise of Tun Fuad Stephens, the plaintiff who was then the Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah took over as Chief Minister. He held on to the post until his Berjaya Party was defeated in the 1985 Sabah State Election.

[4] The 1st defendant latched on to the speech by Tengku Razalei