Journalist: Sum paid through intermediary to settle suit
PETALING JAYA: Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown has alleged that PAS, through an intermediary, paid the whistleblowing site more than RM1.4mil to settle the libel suit filed against her by Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.
“Sarawak Report can confirm that towards the end of last year, it was approached with an offer for an out-of-court settlement by PAS through an intermediary, who was a known supporter of the party and who took part in the original decision to sue this site.
“There were extensive negotiations with the intermediary, of which Sarawak Report has a record, which were relayed to Hadi and his agents in PAS who were involved in the case.
“London solicitors Carter Ruck have confirmed they were initially engaged both by Abdul Hadi and by PAS over this case,” she said on her whistle-blower site late Thursday.
Rewcastle Brown also claimed that the PAS intermediary had initially indicated that he wanted to pay the sum in cash, but that
Sarawak Report’s lawyer refused a cash payment and instead accepted a post-dated cheque for Jan 31.
“The recent public statements are once again misleading Malaysians into an understanding that Sarawak Report was not paid and itself backed down from defending its position, which is untrue.
“In the process, they (PAS) have broken the terms of an agreement that they themselves imposed not to discuss the terms of the settlement, and therefore Sarawak Report is entitled to reveal the truth to the Malaysian public and hopes this will draw a line under the affair,” she said.
PAS secretary-wgeneral Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan had said earlier that he had documents to rebut Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s claims about a RM1.4mil settlement between Hadi and Rewcastle Brown.
Rewcastle Brown said Hadi should not have discussed details of the settlement payment with a party member, adding that it was “a flagrant and repudiatory breach of the confidentiality agreement, which is particularly egregious as it is untrue”.
As such, she said Sarawak Report was now entitled to “consider itself released from confidentiality also” in order to tell the truth to the public.
“There are no documents ‘proving Sarawak
Report was not paid’; on the contrary, there is copious evidence showing we were paid by agents of Hadi to allow him to withdraw his claim,” she said.
In 2017, Hadi sued Rewcastle Brown for libel in London over an August 2016 Sarawak
Report article alleging that PAS received RM90mil to guarantee its support for Umno and Barisan Nasional.
She filed a counter-claim in October 2017. On Feb 1, Hadi and Rewcastle Brown agreed to an out-of-court settlement.