Apology not accepted, Terengganu sultanah tells Rewcastle-Brown

Bede Hong Bede Hong Updated 5 years ago · Published on 28 Sep 2018 2:21PM · 5 Comments

Clare Rewcastle-Brown posted an apology on the Sarawak Report website yesterday in response to a letter of demand sent to her in London. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, September 28, 2018.

THE Terengganu sultanah will proceed with her defamation suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown, despite an apology posted on the whistle-blower site yesterday.

Sultanah Nur Zahirah will file a defamation suit seeking an unspecified amount in damages and an apology over claims she was involved in a conspiracy with billionaire Low Taek Jho and the previous government administration in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

Rewcastle-Brown had posted an apology on the Sarawak Report website yesterday in response to a letter of demand sent to her in London.

However, the sultanah did not deem the statement by Rewcastle-Brown to be an “adequate” apology, said her lawyer.

“It does not amount to an apology, at least not by my client’s standards,” Mohd Haaziq Pillay Abdullah told The Malaysian Insight.

“We will still proceed with the suit,” he said, adding that a press conference on the matter would be held tomorrow.

Rewcastle-Brown said in the post on Sarawak Report that she was sorry if the sultanah “has been upset by any misinterpretations of our meaning”.

She added that she did not suggest that the sultanah was “in a conspiracy” with Low, also known as Jho Low, or that the sultanah was in any way connected to the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), the precursor to 1MDB.

“We note that the connection between Jho Low and the Terengganu royal family was in fact far closer to the sister of the sultan, with whom Jho was directly connected in a business sense, and her husband.

“On this basis, later print runs of the book have referred to the sister of the sultan rather than the wife of the sultan as being Jho Low’s prime social connection in Terengganu,” wrote Rewcastle-Brown.

The suit relates to excerpt on page 3 of Rewcastle-Brown’s book, The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story of the 1MDB Expose.

Haaziq had said the excerpt was defamatory as it alleged that Jho Low was friendly with the sultanah and intended to use her influence to set up TIA.

The Terengganu Royal Council of Regency had on September 14 denied the sultanah’s involvement in government administrative affairs or in the establishment of the TIA, which was later renamed 1MDB.

The council had demanded a rectification and an apology for statement. – September 28, 2018.

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Comments

  • You can't reason with those who are not too bright.

    Posted 5 years ago by Xuz ZG · Reply

  • What a good chance to show magnimosity but missed.

    Posted 5 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • Looks like the Malaysia Royal Household are quite edgy since PH came into power. The sensivities are just heighten up by a few level and intolerance are now seen through irrational burst.

    Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Why can an apology be accepted by Terengganu royalty?

    Posted 5 years ago by Sweesing lee · Reply

  • To err is human, to forgive is divine

    Posted 5 years ago by Dayang Fazrina Abang Yasir · Reply