KUALA LUMPUR: Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had to foot Sarawak Report’s RM1.4 million in legal bills in order to exit the defamation suit which he filed against the portal.
The whistleblower portal’s editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown confirmed this on the Sarawak Report today.
She, however, said that this was not stated in the mutual settlement as Abdul Hadi’s lawyers placed the sum in escrow prior to the withdrawal.
In her blog post, Rewcastle-Brown attached an excerpt from a letter of undertaking to affirm the sum was paid, adding that it was the only detail both parties consented to keep confidential.
She however said that “there are no documents proving Sarawak Report was not paid, to the contrary there is copious evidence showing we were paid by agents of Hadi Awang to allow him to withdraw his claim.”
She was responding to PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s revelation on Wednesday that she was paid RM1.4 million as part of an out of court settlement in the defamation suit in London.
He also said that he had documents to back his claim.
Pas secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan, however, denied this saying there was no money involved in the settlement.
“The out of court agreement did not oblige Sarawak Report to provide any of the remedies sought in Hadi’s claim, such as keeping silent on the subject of Umno payments to Pas or anything else, since Sarawak Report had refused to apologise for its remarks or to surrender its commitment to fair reporting in the public interest,” added Rewcastle-Brown.
She also took a swipe at Abdul Hadi and Pas leaders for paying the RM1.4 million to end the lawsuit, adding that they would have however spent significantly more had they pursued the case to the end, only to lose.
She drew on the inconsistencies in the party’s claims and statements that could have landed Abdul Hadi and his witnesses in trouble in court which she alleged was likely to have caused his premature withdrawal.
“If they continued to contradict each other in front of an English Court someone would have committed perjury for lying in a London lawsuit (‘sharia compliant’ lying is not recognised in the UK civil court any more than in most Muslim countries),” she added.
She also said that she was dropping the confidentiality agreement as Pas leaders have breached it by misrepresenting the issue a number of times or denying altogether its existence when they should have held their tongue.
“Sarawak Report therefore is entitled to consider itself released from confidentiality also, in order to be able to tell the truth to the Malaysian people who are being misled,” she blogged, while attaching a photograph of a cheque for the amount.
Abdul Hadi had taken Rewcastle-Brown to court for defamation in 2017 over a report in 2016 that alleged Pas leaders took RM90 million to support Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) ahead of the 14th general election.
He however withdrew the lawsuit filed in London, UK, this year. This has caused many to ask whether he was no longer disputing the accuracy of the report that remains on the Sarawak Report website.
Previously, Pas leaders met Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad ahead of the Semenyih by-election.
Sources told the New Straits Times that Pas had apparently sought the meeting and while its not immediately known if Rewcastle-Brown’s claims were discussed, the timing of the meeting has raised eyebrows.
On how Anwar was clued in on the matter, Rewcastle-Brown said that it was based on a letter from her to Malayan Banking Bhd, confirming that she had instructed her lawyers to transfer the RM1.4 million to her Barclays Bank account in London, with the amount converted to £260,000.
On Thursday, Takiyuddin had reportedly claimed that Pas had evidence to disprove Anwar’s claims and would hold a tell-all press conference.