British journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown has requested that her criminal defamation charge involving Terengganu’s Sultanah Nur Zahirah be dropped, citing that she is based in the UK and is unlikely to appear in a Malaysian court.
The Sarawak Report editor made the plea in submissions to the Attorney-General’s Chambers after the Kuala Terengganu High Court overturned her conviction and two-year jail sentence for criminally defaming the sultanah.
Last month, Justice Radzi Harun ruled the conviction invalid, noting that Rewcastle Brown was not physically present in court when facing the criminal charges, and ordered that the case be reheard.
In a letter to the AGC, seen by FMT, Rewcastle Brown’s lawyers from Guok Partnership argued that “a person can only be regarded as an ‘accused’ if brought before the court, which is not the case here.” They also contended that the criminal charge should be withdrawn because Rewcastle Brown and two others had already been found liable in a civil defamation suit filed by the sultanah.
Sultanah Nur Zahirah initiated the civil suit in 2018, claiming that Rewcastle Brown disparaged her in her book The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story of the 1MDB Expose, which details investigations into the 1MDB scandal. The sultanah alleged that a passage in the book suggested she was involved in corruption, interfered in Terengganu’s administration, and used her status to influence the creation of the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), previously known as 1MDB. She further claimed the statement implied she helped Jho Low secure his advisory role at TIA.
In 2022, the High Court ruled that the statement was not defamatory. However, in December 2023, the Court of Appeal overturned that ruling and awarded Rewcastle Brown RM300,000 in damages and RM120,000 in costs, alongside publisher Chong Ton Sin and printer Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd.
In September 2024, Rewcastle Brown and her co-defendants were denied leave to challenge the decision in the Federal Court.
