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PETALING JAYA: Former Judge Gopal Sri Ram and an attorney from the firm of former Attorney General Tommy Thomas will appear before Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown and two other individuals in a defamation appeal filed by Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah.
Sri Ram said the lawyer will replace Americk Sidhu when the matter is heard in the Court of Appeals on August 24.
“The March 24 hearing was annulled because he was involved in a Federal Court matter,” he told FMT, adding that the appeal had been postponed several times due to Covid-19 restrictions.
In December 2019, High Court Judge Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim said that, in the face of the lawsuit, Rewcastle Brown, publisher Gerakbudaya Enterprise, publisher Chong Ton Sin, and printer Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd had defamed the Sultanah.
The judge said in the mind of any reasonable person, a contested passage in the book “The Sarawak Report – The Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposing” had thrown slander on the plaintiff (the Sultanah).
Zaidi said he agreed with Sultanah’s lawyer, Mohd Haaziq Pillay Abdullah, that the defendants do not need to bring in a language expert to prove that the passage in the book is not libelous.
The defendants had cited the defense of justification, fair comment, and qualified privilege.
Sultanah Nur Zahirah, who is claiming a blanket compensation of RM 100 million from each defendant, alleged that Rewcastle Brown had made a derogatory statement about her in the book and claimed that it could be interpreted to mean that she was involved in corrupt practices.
The plaintiff said that the defamatory statement could also infer that she had interfered in the management of Terengganu in addition to using her status to influence the establishment of the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), which later became 1MDB, and that she had assisted Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho. Low, to become a TIA advisor.
