Sarawak Report founder bids to quash conviction, jail term

 

Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown has gone up to the Kuala Terengganu High Court to nullify her conviction and two-year jail sentence for criminal defamation against Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah.

The outspoken journalist’s counsel Guok Ngek Seong confirmed that the notice of appeal was filed earlier today.

Yesterday, the Kuala Terengganu Magistrate’s Court found Rewcastle-Brown guilty of the charge under Section 500 of the Penal Code, and sentenced her in absentia.

The conviction and sentence was over her book ‘The Sarawak Report - The Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposé’.

Section 500 provides a punishment of up to two years imprisonment, or a fine, or both.

The case involved a paragraph in Rewcastle-Brown’s initial edition of her book which mentioned the sultanah.

Offending parts

According to the charge sheet, the offending parts were in line seven of paragraph four on page three of the book.

“(It) contains accusations against Sultanah Nur Zahirah as underlined ‘the wife of the sultan’ which is libel where you have cause to believe that the accusation will spoil the good name of Sultanah Nur Zahirah.”

Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah

The charge sheet claimed the book was written at Lot 60048, Taman Chenderiang 21080, in Kuala Terengganu at 8am on Sept 14, 2018.

However, later editions of the book removed the paragraph concerned.

Rewcastle-Brown was charged in absentia before the state’s lower court on Sept 23, 2021.

Last December, Rewcastle-Brown and two others were ordered to pay RM300,000 in defamation damages to the sultanah and in a separate civil suit concerning the same portion of the book. - Mkini