Claire says she never suggested T'ganu sultanah committed graft

Sarawak Report editor, Claire Rewcastle-Brown and two other defendants facing a defamation suit by the Sultanah of Terengganu have claimed they did not suggest that Sultanah Nazirah had committed graft or was associated to fugitive businessman Jho Low of the 1MDB scandal.

In their statement of defence, they also claimed that there was no imputation that the sultanah was influencing the Terengganu state administration.

"The only imputation capable of being derived in this context (from a book) is that Jho Low used his ties with the Terengganu royal family to obtain an advisory role in the setting up of the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA).

"The imputation is incapable of bearing a defamatory meaning (to her)," they said in their defence.

Rewcastle-Brown, publisher Chong Ton Sin of GerakBudaya Enterprise and printers Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd are named as defendants in the sultanah's RM300 million defamation suit following the publication of the book The Sarawak Report - The inside story of 1MDB.

The defendants further claimed that if one were to read the full contents of the 438-page book, it meant that the Terengganu royal family were deeply concerned with the rejecting and abandoning of TIA and acted in an exemplary manner by detecting the inappropriateness of the proposed bond issued for TIA.

Sultanah Nazirah in her statement of claim filed last month said Rewcastle-Brown published the book which contained purported defamatory words.

She claimed that she never got involved with the Terengganu state administration and it was a known fact that TIA was the precursor to 1MDB.

Sultanah Nazirah further denied of getting involved in the formation of TIA and never gave approval to Jho Low to form it or to form a sovereign wealth fund.

She further denied knowing Jho Low or giving the go-ahead to support him as an advisor to TIA.

Today, the matter came up for case management before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Justice Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim.

Justice Ahmad Zaidi fixed Jan 30 for mention. Lawyer Vishnu Kumar appeared for the sultanah. - Mkini