(STRASBOURG/FRANCE) The Canadian real estate group SAKTO Corporation, which has been suing the Swiss environmental organisation Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF) for defamation since 2018, today received the "International Bully of the Year" award and the "People's Choice Award" at the European SLAPP Contest in Strasbourg.
The Coalition against SLAPP in Europe (CASE) awards these prizes to draw attention to the issue of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) and to put the SLAPP plaintiffs in the spotlight. Last July, the coalition officially categorised the Taib daughter's lawsuit against BMF as the first Swiss case to be classified as a SLAPP.
Sakto and Jamilah Taib sued the Bruno Manser Fonds in 2018 for defamation because BMF had linked their enormous wealth to alleged grand corruption and money-laundering in Malaysia. Taib family members have allegedly profited from the large-scale logging of Sarawak 's rainforests since the 1980s.
More on the legal case of the property group against the Bruno Manser Fonds