Mahathir worried about the Hadi-Clare court case
What Mahathir wants is for Azmin to talk to Hadi and persuade the PAS President to drop the suit. Mahathir will then talk to Clare and ask her to drop her counter-suit as well. Both will pay their own legal costs and the case will be settled out of court, just like the Khalid Ibrahim versus Saifuddin Nasution case. A gag order will be agreed upon whereby both sides will not reveal the terms of the out-of-court settlement.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Mahathir and Azmin met to discuss how to settle the Hadi-Clare case out of court
Pakatan Harapan’s interim Prime Minister-in-waiting, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, met up with incoming PKR President cum outgoing Selangor Menteri Besar, Mohamed Azmin Ali, to discuss the Abdul Hadi Awang versus Clare Rewcastle Brown court case in London.
Mahathir’s worry is not regarding the legal ramifications of the case but regarding the political fallout due to the case.
Clare is postponing the case until after GE14 but Mahathir is worried this may be politically damaging
First is that Clare is delaying this case because she is not able to adduce any evidence to prove that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak bribed Hadi RM90 million. After so long since last year Clare still failed to adduce any evidence to support her allegation, which simply means she has no evidence.
Clare is doing what Anwar Ibrahim did, which was to drag his case for seven years. Finally, Anwar still lost and was sent to jail for five years. So, the postponements were longer than the sentence.
Mahathir feels that PAS will use the fact that Clare failed to adduce any evidence to support her allegation as proof that Clare is the Queen of Fitnah. And since she could not prove her allegation of the RM90 million bribe, this means she lied, and that will also mean all her other fitnah before this regarding Najib, 1MDB and so on are also lies.
Hadi can use the fact that since last year Clare could not prove Najib bribed him RM90 million so that means it is mere fitnah and not true
So, this is not just about Hadi or the RM90 million bribe allegation. This involves Clare’s credibility and if her RM90 million bribe allegation is false that means all the other allegations are also false.
All that Mahathir has to use against Najib are the 1MDB and RM2.6 billion issues. Hence, he cannot afford for these allegations to be classified as fitnah. And they would if Clare is seen as the Queen of Fitnah.
What Mahathir wants is for Azmin to talk to Hadi and persuade the PAS President to drop the suit. Mahathir will then talk to Clare and ask her to drop her counter-suit as well. Both will pay their own legal costs and the case will be settled out of court, just like the Khalid Ibrahim versus Saifuddin Nasution case. A gag order will be agreed upon whereby both sides will not reveal the terms of the out-of-court settlement.
Khalid and Saifuddin settled their case out of court when Saifuddin could not prove the allegation
This would mean the case will be buried before the coming general election and it cannot be used as an election weapon and the question of Clare’s credibility and her image as Queen of Fitnah would disappear.
Whether Azmin can convince Hadi to drop the case is uncertain but Mahathir can easily convince Clare to back down since the legal fees, which are expected to run into millions, is coming from him. Hence Mahathir can decide whether to proceed or back down.
Oh, and please remember, you read this here first.
