What Najib now fears is to see these two men staring down at him from posters across Malaysia. The signs of panic are everywhere now in BN......
KUALA LUMPUR: Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown has been ordered to pay £28,900 (RM155,790) to Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang by a United Kingdom court, according to the Pas president’s lawyer.
In a Facebook posting, Wan Rohimi Wan Daud said the London High Court had handed down the decision in a defamation suit filed by Hadi in the UK.
“TGHH (Tok Guru Haji Hadi) has won all five interlocutory applications! Sarawak Report has been ordered to pay costs of £28,900,” he posted.
Hadi’s political secretary Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, when contacted, told the New Straits Times Press that they had “received positive news” from London.
“(Yes) we received positive news. More details will be given in a press statement tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said.
Hadi filed the defamation suit against Rewcastle-Brown at the London High Court on April 21 last year following a Sarawak Report article which appeared on Aug 6 2016 which alleged that he had received RM90 million to get Pas to support Umno and Barisan Nasional.
PETALING JAYA: The London High Court has ordered Sarawak Report to pay £28,900 (RM156,017) in costs in its case against PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang (pic).
Abdul Hadi's lawyer Wan Rohimi Wan Daud in a Facebook post said that Abdul Hadi had won all five of its interlocutory applications in its libel suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown.
"Sarawak Report has been ordered to pay cost of £28,900 (RM156,017)," he said.
He added that a press conference will be conducted in due time.
PAS had sued Rewcastle-Brown for libel over an article she wrote alleging that the party had received RM90mil in bribes from Umno.
However, Sarawak Report in a post on Monday (April 30) refuted PAS' announcement that five of its applications were defeated and said that its claims that Abdul Hadi had won the libel case was "false".
Sarawak Report also said that the half-day hearing in front of Justice Dingemans was only related to its procedural application.
"Political parties cannot sue in the UK and Sarawak Report had petitioned for a quick preliminary trial to determine whether it was Abdul Hadi or PAS who was behind the case to silence Sarawak Report on the issue of money flowing from Umno into the political party," it claimed.
Sarawak Report said the judge had set a provisional date for a full trial for ten days lasting from April 1 to 12, 2019.
Statement on inaccurate and highly misleading claims made by PAS:
Sarawak Report understands that a number of highly inaccurate claims have been made by PAS, claiming some sort of victory in their case against SR. This is a ridiculous and highly misleading claim to make as a result of a procedural hearing where not one moment was spent considering the merit or truth of their case.
Point 1 - There were not '5 applications struck out by the judge' - the claim is wholly untrue.... This hearing considered one thing only, which was SR's application to achieve a speedier and cheaper end to the matter through a preliminary trial that would have determined if Hadi even has a right to bring a case, given it is so evidently primarily a case being brought by PAS. This would have saved a lot of money. However, PAS resisted this possibility of an early termination of their case and said they wanted a full, very expensive trial. They said they would bring up several complications at any preliminary hearing and would also appeal if they lost the judgement. The judge therefore said it was safer and might turn out cheaper in the end to have the full trial, where SR is defending on several other inter-related issues on which it can defeat Hadi's case, not least the truth and the right to report in the public interest.
Point 2 - The claim that the judge 'struck out SR's truth defence' and that therefore '70% of the case is now won by PAS' is a complete untruth. SR had already withdrawn the current version of the truth defence, in order to amend and strengthen it with new information that has now become available relating to PAS receiving funds from UMNO. We explained to the court (when discussing costs) that this includes a recording that is in the public domain purportedly of Nik Abduh admitting the party receives cash from UMNO. The judge enquired if SR will be bringing a revised truth defence before the trial and our lawyers confirmed we would. Sarawak Report had already agreed before the trial to pay the costs of those changes and the judge slashed to nearly half the amount that Hadi's lawyers claimed they needed for the time spent.
Finally, a note to the PAS lawyer who admitted to taking photographs of the London lawyers in the court building and then put them up on Facebook. As a lawyer he ought to know this is strictly forbidden and punishable by up to 6 months in prison. Funny they didn't warn him.
