Sarawak Report editor tight-lipped on defence against Hadi's suit

Whistleblower site Sarawak Report's editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown is tight-lipped regarding her defence against PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s defamation suit against her.

“I will not reply in detail at this point, as my lawyers are handling this matter,” she told Malaysiakini today via email when queried on the matter, following reports purporting that she failed to file her defence on time.

On Aug 31, New Straits Times (NST) quoted a blog claiming that Rewcastle-Brown had failed to file her defence by 4pm on Aug 30 (UK time) and that this is supposedly
a violation of an Aug 2 court order.

The blog reportedly claimed that Rewcastle-Brown’s lawyers would likely file for an extension in October, but the failure would cause alarm to Pakatan Harapan politicians who had demonised Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak based on her reports.

However, Rewcastle-Brown said the blog post was a “malicious and highly inaccurate” spin and NST should not have republished its claims as though the blog is an accurate or reliable source of information.

“There are very real concerns about the release and then deliberate distortion of information relating to the standard management of this case for political propaganda purposes in Malaysia, with the clear purpose of giving false impressions, even before the response to Mr Hadi's claims have been laid before the court,” she added.

She also noted that NST had quoted the blog claiming that US sources had purportedly confirmed that Pakatan Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad had been channelling “millions” into her bank account to topple Najib.

“This is an extremely serious, libellous and wholly untrue accusation of the sort that I have become used to from various anonymous and unattributed fringe blogs, but rarely from an authored article in a mainstream newspaper. Frankly, I am shocked,” she said of the allegation.

Hadi is suing Rewcastle-Brown over allegations that PAS had received RM90 million from Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. - Mkini