‘I’VE PROOF PAS PAID REWCASTLE-BROWN’
Anwar says Hadi paid Sarawak Report editor RM1 million to settle suit
DATUK Seri Anwar Ibrahim has claimed that he has “credible information” that Pas paid RM1 million to Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown.
Anwar said Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang paid more than RM1 million to Sarawak Report to settle his suit against the online portal.
It was reported that Hadi had reached an out-of-court settlement with Rewcastle-Brown to settle the suit, which the former had filed after the portal accused Pas of receiving RM90 million from Umno in the run-up to the 14th General Election.
Anwar, who is PKR president, said yesterday he would reveal more about the settlement at a ceramah in Semenyih.
“I don’t think Pas will be able to deny it... I have enough information to prove that the party had paid Rewcastle-Brown.
“I will explain this in detail in Semenyih,” he said here yesterday.
Yesterday, Pas secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan denied Hadi paid the sum as part of an out-of-court settlement with Rewcastle Brown earlier this month.
Hadi had sued Rewcastle-Brown in London over a 2016 Sarawak Report article claiming that former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had chan- nelled RM90 million to top Pas leaders in a bid for support ahead of GE14.
However, both parties agreed to settle the suit and keep the conditions confidential.
On claims that there were attempts to oust Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar said this controversy had been concocted by Hadi to cause a rift between him and Dr Mahathir.
Anwar said he had always chosen to refrain from attacking Pas, but could no longer hold back when the Islamic party started attacking him over the past two to three years and attempted to cause a rift between him and Dr Mahathir.
He said: “I have discussed this with Pakatan Harapan leaders. No one has heard of such a plan. We are bound by an agreement to support Dr Mahathir as prime minister, so it is not possible to call it off.
“The rumour is without basis. PKR will give its support to Dr Mahathir as promised. Do not try to pit us (Pakatan Harapan parties) against one another.
“This is the work of Pas. That is why I started to hit back at it.”