KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown only has 14 days to pay £41,400 (RM227,700) in legal costs over a defamation suit by PAS’ president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.
In a statement, Abdul Hadi’s aide Ahmad Shamsuri Mokhtar said this was decided by the High Court of Justice in London, following a four-hour hearing before Justice Dingemans yesterday.
“The court has officially dismissed the entirety of Clare’s admission of ‘truth’,” he said.
“In other words, Abdul Hadi has a strong basis to continue suing the defendant.”
On April 21 last year, Abdul Hadi in his personal capacity, filed a defamation suit against Rewcastle-Brown for an allegation by Sarawak Report that the Islamist party has received RM90 million from rival party Umno.
“In addition, Rewcastle-Brown has formally abandoned her application to amend her truth defence to rely on an audio recording of statements allegedly made by Nik Abduh,” Shamsuri added.
He was referring to a 20-minute voice recording leaked in February, purportedly of central leadership committee member of the Islamist party and incumbent Pasir Mas MP, Nik Muhammad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz.
In the audio recording, the son of the late PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, allegedly mentioned two individuals who had linked the party with Umno over political cooperation and confirmed that PAS had accepted money from its foe.
Nik Abduh has since denied that the voice on the audio recording was his, calling it “slanderous”.
Ahmad Shamsuri added the defendant, Rewcastle-Brown, now is going for her third attempt at a truth defence by putting forward another draft defence relying on said recording.
He said the judge had also denied Rewcastle-Brown’s attempt to ask the Court to order for a separate trial on the question of where readers of the publication would have understood that the article was referring to Abdul Hadi.
The suit will be heard in April next year.
