May 18 to hear 1MDB whistleblower's criminal defamation appeal

 

The Kuala Terengganu High Court has set May 18 to hear Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown’s appeal to quash her guilty verdict and two-year jail sentence.

The 1MDB whistleblower’s counsel, Guok Ngek Seong, confirmed the hearing date for her appeal over a criminal defamation case linked to Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah.

“The judge hearing the appeal is Radzi Harun,” the lawyer told Malaysiakini.

On Feb 7 last year, the Kuala Terengganu Magistrate’s Court found Rewcastle-Brown guilty of the criminal defamation 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 Expose”.

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

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

Tarnished reputation

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.”

Kuala Terengganu Court complex

The charge sheet claimed the book was written at Lot 60048, Taman Chenderiang, 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.

In December 2023, the Court of Appeal also allowed the sultanah’s appeal for Rewcastle-Brown and two others to pay the state royalty RM300,000 in defamation damages.

The sultanah had sued Rewcastle-Brown in the civil suit concerning the same portion of the book.

In September last year, the Federal Court denied the whistleblower’s appeal to avoid paying damages to the sultanah. - Mkini