Athletics: High Court dismisses Soh Rui Yong's appeal against defamation decision
Soh Rui Yong's appeal against the district court's decision to award former national marathon teammate Ashley Liew $180,000 in damages for defamation was dismissed by a High Court jugde on Monday (March 28).
Last September, District Judge Lee Li Choon had ordered Soh to pay Liew the sum, which includes $120,000 in general damages and $60,000 in aggravated damages, for five statements he made about an act of fair play by Liew which he disputed.
In Monday's High Court hearing, which took place over video-conferencing platform Zoom, Justice Valerie Thean upheld the decision and also ordered Soh to pay $18,000 in costs for the appeal hearing. This is in addition to the $125,000 in costs and fees Soh had in February been ordered to pay for the district court trial.
While Justice Thean also upheld District Judge Lee's decision to grant Liew's request for an injunction for Soh from repeating the offending comments, remove them, and retract the statements he made, the judge ruled Soh does not need to publish an apology on his Facebook and Instagram pages.
Soh, who is in London where he is pursuing a law degree, said he respected the Court's decision "and will move forward from here".
The dismissal of the appeal draws a line under the long-running legal dispute between the former national teammates that began in June 2019 when Liew filed proceedings against Soh.
The district court trial started in September 2020 and ended in June last year.
Liew, 34, had sought a total of $240,000 in general and aggravated damages - in equal amounts - over the five defamatory statements by Soh, 30, the first of which was made in October 2018.
The statements appeared in the form of two blog posts, two Facebook posts, and one Facebook comment. In them, Soh had disputed Liew's account of the latter's act of fair play during the 2015 SEA Games marathon.
Liew, a chiropractor, said that he had slowed down to allow other runners to catch up after they missed a U-turn and took the wrong path. He finished eighth, while Soh won the race.
Liew later received two awards for his act of sportsmanship from the Singapore National Olympic Council and the International Fair Play Committee - which awarded him the Pierre de Coubertin World Fair Play Trophy - as well as praise from Cabinet ministers.
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