Monday 3 June 2019

Jamilah Taib Murray continues campaign against Swiss NGO

Back in February of this year a Swiss court ordered the Malaysian-Canadian entrepreneur Jamilah Taib Murray and her Canadian husband Sean Murray to pay C$220,000 in damages, as well as C$26,000 in court costs, to the Swiss NGO Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF), which campaigns on behalf of rainforests and the people who live in them.
Jamilah Taib Murray

The initial ruling was upheld at the end of May, with the Court of Appeal ordering payment of an additional C$18,000 in damages and $C13,500 in court costs.

But this battle is far from over. Directly after the loss of the appeal, Thomas Weibel, the Swiss lawyer for Jamilah Taib Murray and Sean Murray, confirmed that the defamation lawsuit against BMF and its Executive Director, Lukas Straumann, was continuing.

As with the initial attempt at an injunction, the claim is that BMF and Straumann have engaged in a multi-year campaign of unfounded allegations against the Taib Murrays. On the Canadian front, the Taib Murrays' Canadian lawyers at noticia LLP, via the website TheFactsMatter.ca, have said that the "full legal attention" of the complainants will now be directed at resolving the defamation suit.