Marathoner Soh Rui Yong ordered to pay $180,000 to Ashley Liew over defamatory statements

Marathoner Soh Rui Yong ordered to pay $180,000 to Ashley Liew over defamatory statements

The Straits Times - Sports·2021-09-23 12:02

SINGAPORE - The District Court has ordered the nation's top marathoner Soh Rui Yong to pay former teammate Ashley Liew $180,000 for defamation.

The sum includes $120,000 in general damages and $60,000 in aggravated damages.

The long-running legal dispute between the former national teammates began over two years ago in June 2019 when Liew filed proceedings against Soh over five statements over an act of fair play by the former which the latter disputed, the first of which was made in October 2018.

In a Facebook post on Thursday morning (Sept 23) before he received the verdict, Soh wrote: "To this day I stand by what I said - because it is what I witnessed that day and I would never testify to anything else. I have absolutely no reason to lie."

The trial started in September 2020 and ended in June. Both parties filed their closing submissions a month later, followed by reply submissions on Aug 31.

Liew had sought a total of $240,000 in general and aggravated damages - in equal amounts - over the five defamatory statements by Soh.

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 had finished eighth, while Soh won the race.

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