Clare's lawyer: If account fake, bank made huge mistake

Lawyer Americk Sidhu has dismissed PAS' claim that a Bank Islam account used to transfer RM1.4 million to his client, Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown, was fake.

"I confirm this cheque was cleared through my clients' account with Maybank, which means the cheque must have been genuine or the clearing bank made a huge mistake," he told Malaysiakini.

Americk added that the cheque was written in front of him but declined to reveal who the account holder was.

Earlier, PAS information chief Nasrudin Hasan said attempts to transfer funds to the Bank Islam account mentioned by Sarawak Report had failed.

Social media users have also disputed the account number since it only has 10 digits, compared to the 14 digits of a regular Bank Islam account number.

The account number was shown in one of the documents published by Sarawak Report yesterday to rebut claims that Hadi had not paid to settle his defamation suit against Rewcastle-Brown.

Rewcastle-Brown said she had agreed to Hadi’s condition that both parties keep the payment confidential.

However, she added, it became untenable to maintain the confidentiality agreement when PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan insisted that no payment had been made.

"Hadi should not have been discussing details of the settlement payment with a member of PAS at all.

"Takiyuddin’s representations on Hadi’s behalf is a flagrant and repudiatory breach of the confidentiality agreement, which is particularly egregious as it is untrue.

"Sarawak Report therefore is entitled to consider itself released from confidentiality also, in order to be able to tell the truth to the Malaysian people who are being misled,” she said. - Mkini