Clare Rewcastle-Brown, founder and editor of whistle-blower site Sarawak Report, said the Malaysian government should have a more "articulate reason" if it wants to extradite her to Malaysia to face charges of "meddling" in Malaysian affairs.
Responding to the Home Ministry's statement last night that Malaysia might get Britain's help to extradite her if a "prima facie" case is established, Rewcastle-Brown said such a reason would not be accepted under UK law.
"He had better articulate a reason. 'Truths annoying to the Malaysian prime minister' do not cut muster with British law," she told The Malaysian Insider last night.
Rewcastle-Brown was asked to respond to Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's statement that the government might extradite her for interfering in the country's sovereignty if a case could be established.
Zahid's statement came a day after a little known non-governmental organisation, Pertubuhan Minda Sosial dan Prihatin (PMSP), submitted a memorandum to the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, asking the UK to prevent Rewcastle-Brown from interfering in Malaysia's affairs.
Pertubuhan Minda Sosial dan Prihatin members submitted a memorandum to the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on Friday to protest against Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown’s alleged interference in Malaysian affairs.
The group charged that Sarawak Report's exposes on debt-ridden state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) were an attempt to "colonise" the country.
Rewcastle-Brown has been accused of tampering with 1MDB documents as part of a scheme to topple Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also finance minister and 1MDB's advisory board chairman.
She has denied the claim, which was made by a former Sarawak Tribune journalist Lester Melanyi, who said he served as the website's editor. Melanyi made these "confessions" in videos that have been released by PMSP leader Ramesh Rao Krishnan Naidu. Melanyi later admitted that he was paid travelling expenses and an allowance to make the video in Kuala Lumpur.
Rewcastle-Brown, however, said Melanyi had never worked for the website.
The Sarawak Report website has also been blocked by Malaysian Internet regulators since a week ago, on grounds that its contents on 1MDB could destabilise the country.
Rewcastle-Brown and her website have been blamed for tampering with documents on 1MDB stolen by Swiss national, Xavier Andre Justo, from his former employer PetroSaudi International.
PetroSaudi had had a joint venture with 1MDB in 2009, and the documents from Justo subsequently revealed that the joint venture was allegedly an elaborate scam to siphon off US$1.83 billion.
Justo is now in Thai police custody and is due to face charges of blackmail and extortion.
He recently confessed to the police to handing over the stolen information to Sarawak Report and several Malaysians in exchange for payment, which he said he never received.
Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown says British law will not look too favourably on those unable to provide solid reason when seeking to extradite her on grounds of ‘meddling’ in Malaysian affairs.
In an email sent last night to an undisclosed list of recipients through blind carbon copy, which The Malaysian Insider received, Sarawak Report said the chain of events leading to Justo's handover of the documents show that it was impossible for the information to have been tampered with.
This was because Sarawak Report took the information it received from Justo and also passed it on to the UK Sunday Times, which helped to decrypt the material, it said.
The decrypted information was now regulators and law enforcers in the United States and is the same material that The Edge recently handed over to the Malaysian police.
"Indeed, the various transactions, which have been featured in the articles by Sarawak Report and indeed other publications, passed through numerous banks and regulators.
"Therefore, if our information had been ‘tampered’, this could easily be proven by testing it against the records of any one of them," Sarawak Report said. – TMI
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