Accused of forgery, Sarawak Report puts Umno-owned NST under spotlight instead
(Malay Mail Online) – Sarawak Report (SR) founder Clare Rewcastle Brown is accusing New Straits Times (NST) of publishing false news to discredit her website, noting that the newspaper is owned by Umno.
The London-based editor rubbished the newspaper’s report yesterday that claimed her website tampered with documents on PetroSaudi International’s (PSI) abortive deal with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), claiming the article contradicted other reported statements from the Thai police on the same matter.
“I don’t believe a word that is reported by the NST, based on their recent stories. So, if the policeman has allegedly said these things to NST who else has he said it to?
“The NST account entirely contradicts what other newspapers have reported the Thai police as saying,” she said in an email to Malay Mail Online, claiming the newspaper was prone to bias on the topic of 1MDB.
“And one therefore has to wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that NST is owned by Umno and the chair of Umno is Najib Razak who is up to his neck in the problems with 1MDB which have been the subject of these reports?” she added.
In its report yesterday, the NST reported Thai police as confirming that a London-based news outlet had tampered with classified documents belonging to PSI, without naming the organisation.
The daily quoted Thai police spokesman Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri as saying that the news site belongs to a “Malaysia-born woman who moved to Britain”, which the paper said is likely in reference to SR and Rewcastle Brown.
NST also reported Prawut saying that the news outlet had tampered with the said documents in order to discredit Najib and his government.
The report, however, contradicted a previous article by news agency Associated Press (AP) that said the Thai police have refused to share with Malaysian diplomats information on their investigation on Swiss national Xavier Andre Justo.
Justo, a former PSI director who was recently arrested by Thai police for attempting to extort and blackmail his former employees, is said to be the source of the documents that allegedly suggest impropriety in the PSI-1MDB venture.
According to AP, Thailand national police chief Somyot Poompunmuang had conveyed this to a delegation of Malaysian diplomats after meeting them two days ago.
“So how come this guy gives a different story to NST?” Rewcastle Brown asked, referring to Prawut, the Thai police spokesman interviewed by NST.
“After all, the sort of statements that NST are quoting this policeman as making are highly unprofessional for a policeman in the middle of an investigation,” she added.
Rewcastle-Brown then challenged Najib to directly address the issues surrounding PSI’s joint venture with debt-laden 1MDB, saying it would be better than pushing out “irrelevant lies” and defamatory remarks about SR and Justo.
Justo was arrested at his home in Thailand last month for alleged blackmail. He was allegedly the source of leaked documents on PSI’s US$1.2 billion joint venture with 1MDB that fell through in 2009.
After his arrest, a cybersecurity expert from Protection Group International (PGI) was quoted in NST as claiming that the documents leaked to Sarawak Report were doctored.
Thai police were on Thursday reported saying the Swiss national had confessed to the crime and divulged further details including the identities of the 10 people he had sold the classified information.
Malaysia’s national police chief promised to hunt down the people involved, which included an opposition leader said to have met with Justo in Singapore previously.
