Clare Rewcastle-Brown grilled for 3 hours by police

Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown has been questioned by police at Bukit Aman for over three hours following a police report said to have been lodged by a lawyer representing Sultanah Nur Zahirah of Terengganu.

Rewcastle-Brown, who was met outside the Bukit Aman headquarters at about 4pm today, said the sultanah's lawyer had filed a police report against her besides lodging a civil caseagainst her and her book distributor for alleged defamation.

The sultanah had, two months ago, filed the suit against Rewcastle-Brown over a supposedly defamatory statement on page three of her book, The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposé.

The statement, which is part of the book’s prologue, reads: "Jho was also friendly with a key player in Terengganu, the wife of the sultan, whose acquiescence was needed to set up the fund and he later cited her support as having been crucial to his obtaining the advisory position."

The Sarawak Report has since clarified that the passage does, in no way, suggest that the sultanah was involved in either the 1MDB scandal, or with fugitive businessperson Jho Low, who is said to be the mastermind behind it.

"I think 13 people have been interviewed by the police. I contacted the police from the UK and asked them what was going on, and why the people I was staying with, and the people who hosted events for me, why they were being questioned.”

"I was told that there was a case opened against me and I was under investigation," she said, adding that she flew to Malaysia to facilitate investigation into the matter after learning that her friends had been questioned by the police.

"Apparently, they (police) tried to contact me but never succeeded.

So I contacted the police… I said I was happy to come and explain," she added.

She said the interview, which started at about 11am, was pleasant and she hoped that she had explained everything to the police.

"I believe they are totally incorrect allegations… alleging that I said things that I did not say," she said.

Rewcastle-Brown also expressed she was shocked to learn from the police that there are three separate cases against her that have not been closed since 2015.

"They were about the allegations of spreading false news. Each in 2015, 2016 and 2018. The police want me to come back to give three separate statements.

"I am shocked as I had assumed that those cases had been closed, that I wasn't longer being investigated for my statements on 1MDB.”

[More to follow] - Mkini