SARAWAK Report has confirmed that PAS paid the portal’s RM1.42 million legal bills to settle Abdul Hadi Awang’s defamation suit.

The whistle-blower site said this was part of the arrangement for the out-of-court settlement inked on January 24, and that it agreed to Hadi’s withdrawal of the case on condition that both parties kept the payment confidential.

“Sarawak Report only agreed to the UK court order to drop Hadi’s case on condition that its costs were paid. In the event, the settlement payment was placed in escrow with Sarawak Report’s Malaysian lawyer, to be released to Sarawak Report the moment that the court order withdrawing Hadi’s case was stamped and sealed,” said the portal.

“That court order withdrawing the proceedings, therefore, provided for ‘no order as to costs’, as Hadi’s contribution had already been paid and was in escrow.”

However, PAS leaders have repeatedly broken the confidentiality obligation, said the portal.

It cited secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan’s statement denying that PAS paid Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown to settle the suit, following PKR president Anwar Ibrahim’s offer of “proof” that the payment was made.

A day after issuing the statement, Takiyuddin said PAS has documents to back its claim, and “will reveal everything” at a press conference soon.

“It means that Takiyuddin, who is the top spokesman of the party and another of Hadi’s representatives in the litigation, has specifically referred to the details of the confidential terms in breach of the settlement agreement, but in a misleading way to imply he can prove that Sarawak Report was not paid, when in fact, Sarawak Report received over RM1.4 million towards its legal fees,” said the portal.

“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 are 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. There are no documents ‘proving Sarawak Report was not paid’, to the contrary, there is copious evidence showing we were paid by agents of Hadi to allow him to withdraw his claim.

“We believe that for political reasons, Takiyuddin is now attempting to delay his vaunted press conference to show this ‘proof’ until after a coming by-election, in order to deceive voters and the public that he will be able to bring such evidence, when he cannot,” said Sarawak Report, likely referencing tomorrow’s Semenyih polls.

It also published a letter to Maybank, believed to have been obtained by Anwar, showing that under money laundering rules, Sarawak Report must explain the export of the equivalent of £260,000 (RM1.42 million) from Malaysia back to London.

The portal said Hadi and his party men were willing to fork out the sum so as to avoid cross-examination on their conflicting testimonies in the suit, filed over a 2016 article alleging that the Islamist party received from Umno RM90 million linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd, and the probability of losing the case and being forced to pay costs.

“If they continued to contradict each other in front of a UK court, someone would have committed perjury for lying in a London suit.”

The out-of-court settlement does not obligate Sarawak Report to stay silent on the subject of the alleged payment to PAS, said the portal, adding that it agreed to withdraw a counter-suit against Hadi to end all legal action between the parties.

Sarawak Report filed the counter-suit due to harassment by pro-Umno bloggers, including Raja Petra Kamarudin, who was cited as one of Hadi’s witnesses and is brother to Raja Idris Kamarudin, who acted as the PAS leader’s agent in the proceedings.

The portal said it previously complained that confidential information on the case was being leaked to Raja Petra, who “twisted and abused” the said information to attack Sarawak Report.

Given that PAS has broken the terms of the deal that it imposed itself, “Sarawak Report is entitled to reveal the truth to the Malaysian public, and hopes this will draw a line under the affair”, it said.

“After all, Hadi has gotten out of a case that threatened to make a fool of him and his party, and should be grateful for that.” – March 1, 2019.