Crime & Courts

Court dismisses Terengganu Sultanah's defamation suit against Rewcastle-Brown

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has dismissed a RM100 million defamation suit by Sultanah of Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown.

High Court judicial commissioner Dr John Lee Kien How @ Mohd Johan Lee ruled that there were no defamatory statements in the defendant's (Rewcastle-Brown's) book "The Sarawak Report – The Inside Story of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) Expose".

The impugned statement in question read: "Fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low was also friendly with a key player in Terengganu, the wife of the Sultan, whose acquiescence was needed to set up the fund and he later cited her support as having been crucial to his obtaining the advisory position."

Johan, in his ruling, said there were no negative implications from the two imputations in the case despite the defendant's factual error, in which she acknowledged accidentally referring to the plaintiff when the Sultan's sister was intended.

"To say that the plaintiff consented or agreed to the establishment of the sovereign wealth fund, will, to my mind, not in any way degrade the plaintiff's reputation.

"Likewise, mere support from someone for a job would not in any way discredit a person bearing in mind such support or letters of support is very much a Malaysian culture.

"Moreover, the statement also highlights that such statement (about the support of the Sultanah in his obtaining the position) was claimed by Jho Low himself. There is nothing to suggest the truth in it," he said.

Johan also disagreed with the plaintiff's submission that Rewcastle-Brown could not forward any defences since she had already apologised to the former.

"To sum up, I see no defamatory imputation from the statements although there was obviously a matter of mistaken identity.

"Thus, the plaintiff's case is hereby dismissed," he said.

The court also awarded a total of RM80,000 in costs to the defendants.

Apart from Rewcastle-Brown, the Sultanah also named book publisher Gerakbudaya Enterprise and printer Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd as the other defendants.

Sultanah Nur Zahirah claimed RM100 million in damages from each of the defendants and wanted the second defendant, the publisher, to withdraw the books containing the defamatory statements as well as to stop the third defendant, the printing company, from printing more copies of the book.

In their statement of defence, the three defendants denied that they had accused Sultanah Nur Zahirah of being involved in corrupt practices.

Rewcastle-Brown contended that Sarawak Report did not suggest that the Sultanah was involved in a conspiracy that involved Low or that she was involved in the government administration associated with 1MDB matters.

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