Malaysian Politician’s Daughter Loses Defamation Suit Against Swiss NGO

17 December 2024

(BASEL/SWITZERLAND) For six years, the Malaysian - Canadian businesswoman Jamilah Taib Murray, daughter of a politician responsible for the deforestation of the Borneo rainforest, has been trying to bring down a Swiss NGO with legal action. With a new partial ruling by the Basel Civil Court, she has failed spectacularly.

The Basel Civil Court rejected a ban on seven allegedly defamatory statements as the Bruno Manser Fonds had not actually made them. The Bruno Manser Fonds is a Swiss NGO dedicated to the conservation of tropical rainforests and to fighting corruption in the timber industry.

The Bruno Manser Fonds should have been prohibited from making the following statements on Taib Murray, her husband Sean Murray and Sakto, a group of Canadian real estate companies controlled by the couple:

- "The plaintiffs' business model was based on, or consisted of, corruption

- The plaintiffs belonged to the 'tropical timber mafia' and/or a criminal organization

- The plaintiffs engaged in money laundering

- The plaintiffs were 'Taib helpers'

- The plaintiffs possessed and/or laundered potentate money

- The plaintiffs belonged to the Taib clan

- The plaintiffs had stolen assets from the people of Sarawak"

The court ruled that the legal request by the plaintiffs for a ban was too broadly formulated as the Bruno Manser Fonds had not made the statements in this form. The court also rejected the legal request to delete all publications allegedly containing these statements.

The court has not yet ruled on 259 text passages that the plaintiffs had applied to have deleted and on the allocation of court costs.

The court upheld the claim as it did not consider it to be manifestly abusive.

The Bruno Manser Fonds welcomed the decision in an initial reaction: “This decision is of enormous significance and a huge blow for the plaintiffs who sued us solely to suppress the truth,” said Managing Director Lukas Straumann. “We are confident that we will also win the remaining parts of the case in full.”

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