Rewcastle-Brown satisfied defamation case with Hadi settled out of court

KUALA LUMPUR — Sarawak Report editor Ms Clare Rewcastle-Brown is satisfied with the out of court settlement on the defamation suit against her by PAS president Hadi Awang.

In a statement she pointed out that her article which triggered the suit remains online and unchanged.

“I stood my ground,” she said, adding that the article remained as it was despite the attempts to silence and discredit her before the 14th General Election.

“I am very pleased with the outcome as I am entirely vindicated by the fact that Hadi has dropped this case against the article which remains unaltered and online.

“I want to thank all the people who supported me in standing up to this attempt at legal bullying by PAS,” she said in a statement.

Ms Rewcastle-Brown further said both parties had also agreed not to discuss the terms of the settlement.

Pas announced earlier on Saturday (Feb 2) that its president Hadi had reached an out of court settlement with undisclosed terms with Ms Rewcastle-Brown.

The Marang Member of Parliament had agreed to withdraw his claims and demands on the London-based journalist as the defendant, while Ms Rewcastle-Brown also withdrew her counterclaims.

There was also no order made as to costs.

Mr Hadi filed the suit in the London High Court after Ms Rewcastle-Brown wrote and published an eight paragraph article in the Sarawak Report on Aug 6, 2017 where it was alleged that RM90 million was “reckoned” to have been deposited into accounts of top PAS leaders to woo them into supporting Umno and Barisan Nasional.

In her counter-claim, filed two months later on Oct 11 , Ms Rewcastle-Brown claimed that Mr Hadi conspired with then Prime Minister Najib Razak or his agents to discredit her and the portal. NEW STRAITS TIMES