SARAWAK Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown, who is being sued for defamation by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, is wondering where the money for his legal expenses are coming from, as it is not cheap to file such a suit in the UK. 

The London-based journalist is being sued over her article that appeared on the whistleblower site last August that alleged Hadi had received RM90 million in bribes from Prime Minister Najib Razak in return for support. 

With less than three weeks to enter her defence, she said Hadi’s lawyer in the UK had so far refused to reveal who was paying for the case. 

“Nor have they explained why their client is suing in London and not in KL (Kuala Lumpur), where more than a handful of people have at least heard of Hadi Awang. 

“Perhaps Hadi can reveal if it is he or his party who is footing the bill for this expensive case, which by just this stage can be estimated to have cost him around £100,000, or RM600,000?” she said in an email response to The Malaysian Insight. 

Rewcastle-Brown posed the question after the court in London accepted Hadi’s offer last week to pay RM80,000 in deposit as security in the event he loses his defamation suit. 

She said during case management proceedings on August 2, several officials from the Malaysian High Commission had attended to listen and take notes while nobody from PAS was present, adding that she found this suspicious. 

Hadi’s political secretary Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar had explained the presence of high commission officials in a press statement yesterday.

“The Malaysian High Commission in London sent representatives to attend, … to observe the proceedings as many political allegations were made against the Prime Minister of Malaysia, the government of Malaysia and the judiciary in Malaysia by Clare Rewcastle-Brown in documents that she is filing into court,” he said.

Rewcastle-Brown said this made her “relish” the prospect of taking on  Hadi in court as it would give her the opportunity to “bring out all the evidence about the situation of major public interest which I have reported about in Malaysia – including what I have disclosed and will further disclose about the 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd) case and where the money has gone”.

“As for the explanation for the High Commission’s presence, yes, I am certainly alleging there is corruption at the very top in Malaysia,” she said.

The Sarawak Report editor had attempted to make the court force Hadi to pay a deposit as security, should he lose in his defamation suit against her.

The court decided that Rewcastle-Brown should pay Hadi £15,000 (RM83,700), or two-thirds of the cost of her application, with the quantum of the balance to be assessed by the court in due course. 

The court did not accept her argument that she would not be able to successfully bring a legal suit against Hadi in Malaysia, where the “judiciary, government and the Prime Minister are corrupted and are complicit with him”.

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

Rewcastle-Brown, however, told The Malaysian Insight that the London court did not find that the Malaysian courts were not corrupt. 

“The (London) court has not made any finding other than, at this stage, that Hadi has to pay a deposit of £14,400 (almost RM80,000) as security for the costs of enforcing a judgement against him in Malaysia if he loses. 

“The court awarded two-thirds of the costs of this application – £15,000 – because Hadi had offered to pay £14,400 as security for costs earlier. The court has said that another application for security can be made,” she said. – August 6, 2017.