SARAWAK-BORN journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown, who worked tirelessly to expose the alleged corruption of former Sarawak chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, said she was blacklisted from entering the state because of her reports on deforestation.

Clare then found herself in another controversy as she uncovered another scandal, this time involving former prime minister Najib Razak in the infamous 1Malaysian Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

“There were many attacks such as cyberattacks. But my team had persisted in their attempts to expose corruption and other issues.”

“We need to work in exile out of fear,” she said at the launch of her book, The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story Of The 1MDB Expose.

Rewcastle-Brown, who runs Sarawak Report, revealed that the previous government had mounted a campaign to tarnish her credibility.

“Several parties were paid to slander me while pretending to be activists, to discredit me,” she said to the audience during her speech.

Rewcastle-Brown was wanted by the authorities in Najib’s government and was put under Interpol’s red notice but since Pakatan Harapan took over the country, she has been in and out of Malaysia several times.

“I wrote this book with Malaysians in my mind,” she stated.

Following Barisan Nasional’s defeat in the 14th general election, Najib was arrested and charged in court with abuse of power.

The former prime minister was charged with three counts of money laundering earlier this month, on top of the first four charges over the alleged misappropriation of RM42 million from SRC International.

Three deposits amounting to RM27 million, RM5 million and RM 10 million respectively, were found to have been wired into his AmIslamic Bank account between December 26, 2014, and February 10, 2015.

Last week, Putrajaya filed criminal charges for money laundering against wanted businessman Low Taek Jho, as well as his father, Low Hock Peng, over funds allegedly stolen from 1MDB.

Taek Jho, better know as Jho Low, was Najib’s close confidante.

The charges in absentia were filed by the Police Commercial Crime Investigation Department and Attorney-General’s Chambers at the Putrajaya sessions court.

Warrants of arrest for both men have also been issued. – September 8, 2018.