TENOM, April 30 — The Magistrate’s Court here today ordered preacher Ebit Irawan Lew, or Ebit Lew, to enter his defence on 11 charges related to sexual harassment.

Magistrate Nur Asyraf Zolhani said the court found that the prosecution had successfully established a prima facie case against Ebit Lew, 41, on all the charges.

“After examining and evaluating, with a positive assessment of the credibility and reliability of all the evidence presented by the prosecution witnesses, and after hearing submissions from both parties, as well as upon maximum evaluation of all the prosecution’s evidence, this court finds that a prima facie case has been successfully established by the prosecution against the accused,” said Nur Asyraf.

The court made the decision at the end of the prosecution’s case after hearing testimony from 18 prosecution witnesses during the trial, which began in September 2022.

Ebit Lew was charged with 11 counts of sexual harassment, including outraging the modesty of a woman in her 40s by sending obscene images and messages via WhatsApp between March and June 2021.

He was charged under Section 509 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment, or a fine, or both, upon conviction.

The court set October 13 to 16 for the defence trial.

Lawyer Datuk Ram Singh, representing Ebit Lew, informed the court that the defence will call between seven and 10 witnesses.

“The accused has chosen to testify under oath from the witness stand,” he said.

Deputy public prosecutors Nor Azizah Mohamad, Analia Kamaruddin and Muhammad Hidayat Wahab appeared for the prosecution, while Ebit Lew is also represented by lawyers Kamarudin Mohmad Chinki and Timothy Daut.

Meanwhile, Ram Singh, when met by reporters after the decision, said the defence respects the court’s ruling.

“We hope this case will be concluded soon as it has dragged on for more than four years,” he said. — Bernama

NEW YORK, April 29 — Lawyers for actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni sparred in court yesterday over Lively’s potential bid for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in an upcoming civil trial stemming from her allegations of sexual harassment during the filming of their 2024 romantic drama It Ends With Us.

The highly anticipated civil trial set to begin in May will be limited to Lively’s retaliation claims against Baldoni’s production company after a judge threw out her sexual harassment claims. Both actors are expected to testify about Lively’s claims after a steady drip of details emerged in more than a year of acrimonious and widely publicised litigation, though neither attended yesterday’s hearing.

Baldoni and his company Wayfarer Studios have strongly denied Lively’s allegations, and Baldoni was dismissed as a defendant in US District ‌Judge Lewis Liman’s April 2 ruling throwing out Lively’s sexual harassment claims.

The case is proceeding to trial on Lively’s claims that Wayfarer retaliated against her for complaining about misconduct and organised what she called a smear campaign aimed at destroying her reputation and career prospects through a flood of negative social media posts.

Yesterday’s hearing included arguments over the admissibility of an expert report commissioned by Lively’s lawyers estimating that she suffered as much as US$230 million in lost earnings and profits due to the alleged smear campaign, and at least US$40 million (RM160 million) from reputational harm.

Wayfarer lawyer Fabien Thayamballi called those “pie-in-the-sky” figures that did not reflect her past earnings.

A lawyer for Lively, Naeun Rim, said Wayfarer’s attacks on Lively erased years’ worth of investment in her hair care product line and other companies that were built off her reputation.

Liman concluded yesterday’s hearing without ruling.

Lively sued Baldoni, Wayfarer and others in December 2024, seeking damages for alleged harassment, defamation, invasion of privacy and violations of federal and state civil rights laws.

Baldoni, 42, countered that he resolved Lively’s concerns as soon as she raised them, and that he was entitled to hire a crisis management firm ⁠after Lively began disparaging him publicly.

He filed a US$400 million countersuit accusing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds of trying to destroy his reputation, but Liman dismissed that case in June. — Reuters

Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid allegations of an affair and steering grants to politically connected figures

The secretary of the Department of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, resigned this week after several controversies surrounding her brief tenure at the helm of the agency. But labor officials say even though her troubled reign is over, the US labor authority remains in a state of “constant turbulence”.

Chavez-DeRemer was under investigation over claims she had an affair with a subordinate and allegedly misused travel funds, and that her aides allegedly steered grants to politically connected figures. Her husband was banned from the agency’s headquarters over allegations of sexual assault by at least two staffers.

Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors group claim there are ‘dozens of individuals who must be held to account’

A group of 50 survivors of alleged sexual abuse by Harrods’ former owner Mohamed Al Fayed are calling for “meaningful consequences” for those who they claim facilitated and ignored the abuse.

“If they think the money is the important factor they are so far off the mark,” said Jen Mills, a member of the Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors group. They claim there are “dozens of individuals who must be held to account”, from a range of eras.