UK Court rules no evidence that Najib and Malaysian judiciary are corrupt
“Malaysians can now rest assured that Sarawak Report is nothing but a fake news portal that fabricated email transcripts, shopping receipts, banking documents, money trails and what have you, none of which were authentic, none of which would hold in the court of law”
THE THIRD FORCE
Last Wednesday, the 2nd of August 2017, a group of British lawyers representing PAS President Dato’ Seri Abdul Hadi Awang attended a Case Management hearing in London. The hearing was to decide the amount Hadi needed to deposit as security with the court in relation to a civil suit he is bringing against Clare Rewcastle Brown, the Chief Editor of Sarawak Report.
The suit pertains allegations that the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak, bribed the PAS president with RM90 million, money that Ms. Rewcastle claims originated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). To date, she has yet to furnish the court with evidence to substantiate her claims despite being given ample time to do so.
Yet, she asked the judge to fix £800,000 (about RM4.5 million) as the security Hadi needed to deposit with the court. The PAS president, on the other hand, offered to pay just RM80,000, arguing that the sum was “sufficient and uncontroversial.” Not only did the court accept Hadi’s offer, it ruled that Ms. Rewcastle herself needed to pay costs worth 15,000 pounds (about RM85,000) immediately and the balance upon assessment of the total cost.
Now, here’s the thing – the London court has given Ms. Rewcastle until the 23rd of August 2017 to submit evidence to support her claim that Najib bribed Hadi with RM90 million. That’s 18 days from now, more than enough time for the Sarawak Report Chief Editor to compile the truckloads of “smoking gun evidences” she claims to have against the administration of Najib Razak. Question is, why hasn’t she done it yet?
I mean, we’re talking about the very lady who, for the past seven or so years, dished out article after article implicating the Government of Malaysia and Najib of fraud and conspiracy. Every so often, she would tell Malaysians that her articles bore “smoking gun evidences” that would “hold in any court of law, anywhere in the world.”
If indeed that were true, wouldn’t the submission of her articles alone have convinced the judge that Najib was a shoddy character capable of bribing someone like Hadi? Did it not occur to her that the ‘evidence’ could have prompted the judge to set £800,000 as the security deposit?
Instead, her only defence was that Hadi, being a Malaysian national, could default in payments should she win the case. But Hadi’s lawyers disagreed, citing the fact that she was at liberty to sue him in Malaysia in the event a default occurred. An excerpt from a statement by the PAS president’s political secretary sums this up quite beautifully:
