Al Muderis not a reliable witness, incapable of admitting errors, says Nine

Dr Munjed Al Muderis was not a reliable witness and appeared to be “incapable of admitting errors”, said media company Nine, which is being sued for defamation by the renowned orthopaedic surgeon.

Nine’s lawyer, Dr Matt Collins, KC, said that during the eight-month case, nothing of substance had emerged to “shake the fundamental accuracy” of Nine’s reporting, which revealed “for the first time the other side of Dr Al Muderis’ carefully curated reputation”.

Nine’s barrister, Dr Matt Collins Credit: AAP

“What the evidence established was discreditable conduct by him before surgery, during surgery, after surgery,” said Collins in closing submissions on Monday.

Al Muderis is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes over reports published and broadcast in September 2022.

He alleges the reports convey a range of defamatory meanings, including that he negligently performed osseointegration surgery and provided inadequate aftercare. Osseointegration surgery involves inserting titanium pins into the residual bone of an amputated limb to enable a prosthetic to be connected.

Nine, owner of the media outlets being sued, is seeking to rely on truth, honest opinion and public interest in its defence. Collins said the 75 imputations could be boiled down to 10 meanings relating to Al Muderis’ conduct before, during and after surgery.

“Dr Al Muderis, in our submission, is a very unsatisfactory witness,” Collins said.

Collins described Al Muderis as a “very complex personality”, who had enormous talent and had gone to developing countries and war zones on humanitarian missions.

“But there is another side to him,” Collins told the Federal Court in Sydney. “If there’s one thing that seems to characterise his personality, it’s an … inability to admit error.

“Our submission is that a surgeon who would treat people so callously, so appallingly … is not a surgeon who deserves a glittering reputation; is a surgeon whose malpractices and unethical conduct have left patients devastated and worse off than before they saw him; is a surgeon who has operated negligently; is a surgeon who has delivered substandard care, leaving patients to fend for themselves; is a surgeon who has not properly cared for his patients; is a surgeon who has made promises that he’s not delivered on; is a surgeon whose conduct at times has been appalling and beneath contempt.”

In his submission, Collins said: “I said at the outset that he appears to be a man who is just incapable of admitting error.

“One of the ways in which that manifested itself was his repeated inability to make appropriate concessions, even when matters were blindingly obvious.”

Collins rejected suggestions there was a campaign against Al Muderis. “In the course of some 15 weeks of evidence, we submit that nothing was exposed that could be remotely described as a malignant, dishonest or malicious campaign against Dr Al Muderis,” he said.

Munjed Al Muderis is pursuing a defamation case over reports from 2022.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

“Dr Al Muderis is not a reliable witness. The more time the respondents spent with him, the less likely they were to get accurate information that could have been broadcast in the public interest. They were more likely to get public relations spin which had bedevilled the patients whose stories the respondents were seeking to tell.”

During the trial, Al Muderis’ lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, suggested Nine had deliberately focused on “highly sensational or evocative claims” to incite disgust about her client from readers and viewers, including a patient’s account that he had developed maggots after surgery.

She also alleged the use of words such as “mutilated” and “botched” implied Al Muderis’ glowing reputation was “fake and undeserved”, and suggested the majority of his patients were unhappy and had “suffered” at the hands of the orthopaedic surgeon.

Nine will continue its closing submission on Tuesday.

With Melissa Cunningham

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