Sultanah to file defamation suit against Sarawak Report editor next week

Bede Hong Bede Hong Updated 7 years ago · Published on 9 Nov 2018 7:00AM · 5 Comments

Mohd Haaziq Pillay Abdullah, lead counsel for Sultanah Nur Zahirah, says it is better for the Terengganu royal's defamation suit to be filed in Kuala Lumpur as the defendants are all there. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, November 9, 2018.

AFTER rejecting offers of settlement, the sultanah of Terengganu will file her defamation suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown at the Kuala Lumpur High Court next week.

Lawyers representing Sultanah Nur Zahirah initially intended to file the suit at the Kuala Terengganu High Court but finally decided otherwise.

“It’s better. If we file it in Terengganu, people will start talking, saying this and that,” said her lead counsel, Mohd Haaziq Pillay Abdullah.

“Additionally, the defendants are in KL,” he told The Malaysian Insight after an audience with the sultanah yesterday.

Sultanah Nur Zahirah is suing Rewcastle-Brown for claiming that the royal had conspired with businessman Low Taek Jho in the multi-billion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

The claim was made in Rewcastle-Brown’s book The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story of 1MDB Exposé launched in September.

The suit will also name publisher Gerakbudaya, as well as printers Vinlin Press, as defendants.

Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown denies suggesting that the sultanah conspired with Jho Low to defraud the government. – AFP pic, November 9, 2018.

The sultanah is seeking RM100 million in damages from each party unless they each issue a written apology, an unequivocal public retraction and an undertaking not to repeat the statements.

Her lawyers rejected offers of settlement from the parties last month, saying they failed to meet the criteria for an unconditional apology.

The suit focuses on one paragraph on page 3 of the book which alleged that Low had the sultanah’s support to obtain an official advisory position in 1MDB.

1MDB was formerly known as Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) before being renamed in 2009 under the Najib Razak administration.

Rewcastle-Brown described the conversion of TIA into 1MDB for the purpose of diverting Terengganu’s oil revenues into a “federally controlled entity”.

The sultanah has denied meeting Low or supporting him in securing an advisory role at TIA or 1MDB.

She has also denied being involved in either organisation and interfering in government affairs.

Rewcastle-Brown said on the Sarawak Report website that she was sorry if the sultanah “has been upset by any misinterpretations of our meaning”.

She said she did not suggest that the sultanah was “in a conspiracy” with Low, better known as Jho Low, or that the sultanah was in any way connected to TIA.

“We note that the connection between Jho Low and the Terengganu royal family was, in fact, far closer to the sister of the sultan, with whom Jho was directly connected in a business sense, and her husband,” Rewcastle-Brown said. – November 9, 2018.

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Comments

  • We thought our Royalties are forgiving......but the greedy Lawyers see big money coming.......

    Posted 7 years ago by Azis Yusoff · Reply

  • Hasn't Brown already apologize?

    Posted 7 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • A risky move in my opinion and you might regret opening that can on worms. The courts are no longer beholden to certain personalities.

    Posted 7 years ago by J R · Reply

  • Ingat sudah file. Masih fikir ke

    Posted 7 years ago by S L · Reply

  • There will be no more press freedom

    Posted 7 years ago by Tiong Fee Chua · Reply