Clare’s lawyer confirms RM1.4 million cheque was from a third party
Hence Rameli did not want Hadi or PAS to know that Clare was receiving compensation to agree to settle out of court. If not, he would need to be fair and compensate Hadi as well. As far as Hadi was aware, both sides were not going to receive costs. He did not know only he would not be receiving costs while Clare would be receiving RM1.4 million or so.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Americk said the RM1.4 million was from a third party and not from Hadi or PAS
(MMO) – The lawyer for Sarawak Report, Americk Sidhu, has confirmed receiving a RM1.42 million cheque as settlement of PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s civil suit against the news portal.
He said on January 24 the cheque was provided by a third party, but post-dated to January 31, which he banked into Rewcastle-Brown’s account several days later. Subsequently she instructed Sidhu to transfer the funds to her London bank account.
“But Maybank said it was Bank Negara Malaysia’s regulations to specify reasons for transferring the money abroad. Although we produced the court order, there was no mention of the cost in it, so Clare had to personally write to the bank on February 19,” he said.
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Americk is Sarawak Report’s lawyer for the Sultanah of Terengganu versus Clare Rewcastle Brown case
Americk Sidhu is actually not Sarawak Report’s lawyer for the Abdul Hadi Awang versus Clare Rewcastle Brown case. Both Hadi’s and Clare’s lawyers are in London. Americk is Sarawak Report’s lawyer for the Sultanah of Terengganu versus Clare Rewcastle Brown case.
Anyway, Americk has now confirmed that the RM1.4 million cheque is not from Hadi or PAS but from a third party. And Rafizi Ramli has confirmed that this third party is KTMB Chairman, Rameli Musa, who was appointed as Chairman three days after the date of the cheque.
Rafizi Ramli says Rameli is Hadi’s friend, not Anwar Ibrahim’s friend. Anwar, however, says otherwise and admits that Rameli has been his very close friend since school days.
Another thing that Americk confirms is that the settlement agreement between Hadi and Clare states that no costs are involved. And this posed a problem to Clare because she now had to explain where that RM1.4 million came from.
Even more of a problem would be to explain the RM1.4 million at the receiving end in UK because the UK has very strict rules regarding the transfer of funds, especially from blacklisted Muslim countries like Malaysia that has been listed as a terrorist-money laundering hub.
This letter was so that Clare could ‘legally’ transfer the RM1.4 million to the UK and not get nabbed for money-laundering or tax evasion since the money was actually a bribe
Even a transfer of RM140,000 requires a lot of explaining, let alone RM1.4 million. And that was why Clare and Rameli had to sign the ‘side agreement’ regarding the RM1.4 million. And they had to make it appear like the RM1.4 million is an out-of-court settlement between Hadi and Clare even if that is not so and even if it is mentioned in the settlement agreement that no costs are involved.
If not, how do they explain why Rameli is paying Clare RM1.4 million?
What is crucial is that Hadi or PAS are not a party to the ‘side agreement’ or to the RM1.4 million payment. Not only did they not approve the arrangement, they were not even in the know until Anwar Ibrahim revealed this ‘secret’ earlier this week.
Rameli Musa bribed Clare to get her to agree to settle the case out of court and Hadi or PAS were not involved or had any knowledge of it
So, what is going on here?
Why did Rameli pay Clare RM1.4 million? Who is he acting for?
Was it to get Clare to agree to settle the case out of court?
But why do they, whoever ‘they’ are, want to settle Clare’s case with Hadi out of court? Why not just allow the court case to go on so that we can see whether Clare can show the court the evidence that Umno or Najib Tun Razak paid Hadi and a number of PAS leaders RM90 million as alleged?
Do they want to ‘kill’ this case because they can only prove that Najib gave RM1 million, and not RM90 million, and the RM1 million was paid to Saifuddin Abdullah (PPBM leader and the current Minister of Foreign Affairs) and not to Nasharudin Mat Isa (as what Clare alleged)?
Yes, as much as many may feel the RM1.4 million that was paid to Clare finally answers the question as to why the case between Hadi and Clare was settled out of court, it actually raises even more questions than it answers.
Mahathir’s main worry: would Najib skip town if allowed to go to London to testify?
There is talk in Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s camp that the Prime Minister was behind this whole thing and that Rameli was rewarded for his service with the Chairmanship of KTMB. And the reason Mahathir wanted the case torpedoed is because Hadi’s lawyers were going to subpoena Najib to testify in court. Najib is supposed to have been the person who ‘bribed’ PAS with RM90 million so he will need to admit or deny that in court.
And there is no way Mahathir was going to allow Najib to ‘escape’ to London and later end up under asylum in his son-in-law’s country. Hence the Hadi-Clare case cannot be allowed to go on.
Clare, however, was not going to back down unless she is compensated for her huge legal costs. And that was why Mahathir asked Rameli to pay her off. But that was an arrangement between Mahathir and Clare and did not involve Hadi or else Hadi will also ask for his legal costs to be covered if Clare was going to receive compensation.
RM1 billion a year oil royalty for Terengganu and another billion for Kelantan is good enough compensation for agreeing to settle the case out of court
Hence Rameli did not want Hadi or PAS to know that Clare was receiving compensation to agree to settle out of court. If not, he would need to be fair and compensate Hadi as well. As far as Hadi was aware, both sides were not going to receive costs. He did not know only he would not be receiving costs while Clare would be receiving RM1.4 million or so.
Hadi was short-changed. Now that it has been confirmed that Clare received compensation, Hadi should ask Rameli to also compensate him for his legal costs. That would be the just thing to do. But I suppose if Terengganu can receive its RM1 billion a year oil royalty payment (with maybe another RM1 billion for Kelantan) then Hadi’s RM1-2 million legal costs can be waived.
The real ‘victim’ in this whole thing, however, is Najib. Now he does not get to make that trip to London after all.
