THE report alleging that Sarawak Report chief editor Clare Newcastle Brown had not filed her defence at the London High Court is untrue.

Brown, although refusing to reply in detail, said the English daily “ought to be above republishing” from a propaganda blog that is inaccurate and anonymous.

“There are real concerns about the release and then deliberate distortion of information relating to the management of this case for political propaganda purposes in Malaysia, with the clear purpose of giving false impressions, even before the response to Mr Hadi’s claims have been laid before the court,” she replied to The Malaysian Insight in an e-mail.

She also said the English daily further lied by saying that “whistle blowers” have provided “confirmation from the United States” about Dr Mahathir allegedly channelling “millions” to Brown’s “accounts in efforts to topple Najib”.

“This is an extremely serious, libellous and wholly untrue accusation of the sort that I have become used to from various anonymous and unattributed fringe blogs, but rarely from an authored article in a mainstream newspaper.”

“Frankly, I am shocked,” said Brown.

Writing from information gathered from a blog The Third Force, New Straits Times, said Brown, has failed to furnish evidence at the London High Court in the defamation suit filed by Pas President Abdul Hadi Awang.

Hadi sued Brown for defamation on April 21 over claims he had received RM90 million from Prime Minister Najib Razak to compromise the Islamic party’s independence. – September 2, 2017.