THE London Court has ordered Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown to pay two-thirds of the cost of her application to compel PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang deposit money with the court as security in case he loses his defamation suit against the UK-based journalist.

PAS political secretary Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar said Brown will have to pay £15,000 (RM83,700) to Hadi now, with the quantum of the balance to be assessed by the court in due course.

The court ordered the payment in recognition of the “flawed basis” of Rewcastle-Brown’s application, in which she argued that she could not successfully bring a legal suit against Hadi in Malaysia because the judiciary, government and prime minister were corrupt and in cahoots with Hadi.

Samsuri said the argument was rejected by the court for lack of basis.

“As the court observed, these serious allegations were not supported by any evidence from Brown whatsoever, despite having months to provide some.

“The court made it very clear that without any evidence, the court cannot accept that another sovereign state that has good ties and relationship with the UK is corrupt,” he said in a statement.

Hadi offered to pay a RM80,000 deposit, which the court accepted, Samsuri said.

“PAS lawyers argued, with the legal opinion of a law expert in Malaysia, that there exists well-established laws between the United Kingdom and Malaysia that allows for Brown to claim the costs through the law courts in Malaysia, incurring a cost of not more than RM80,000. 

“Based on his confidence on the case from the beginning, Hadi had already offered to deposit this amount with the court, which was sufficient and uncontroversial.”

Case management to hear Rewcastle-Brown’s attempt to make Hadi to deposit money with the court as security was held on August 2. The Sarawak Report editor had wanted Hadi to pay her legal costs, which she estimates to be around £800,000 in total.

Hadi is suing Rewcastle-Brown over an article she wrote in August 2016, which alleged that Hadi, who leads the opposition Islamist party, PAS, had received RM90 million in bribes from Prime Minister Najib Razak.

She has been ordered to submit her defence within 21 days so that Hadi can proceed with the case. Her lawyer’s request to appeal the judgment was disallowed.

“This is a very positive development for Hadi in his bid to clear his name of the allegations by Brown and Sarawak Report in their article,” Samsuri said.

Hadi is represented by legal firm Carter-Ruck and barrister Jacob Dean in London. – August 6, 2017.

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