PUTRAJAYA: The court hearing for Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown's appeal against a defamation suit filed by Sultanah of Terengganu, Sultanah Nur Zahirah, has been postponed.
The delay occurred because her lead counsel, Americk Singh Sidhu, was unable to attend the proceeding via Zoom due to technical issues.
The editor is seeking a leave (permission) from the Federal Court to dismiss the Court of Appeal's ruling, which found her and two others liable for defaming the Sultanah Nur Zahirah in her book,
"The Sarawak Report – The Inside Story of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) Exposé."
The Appellate Court also awarded RM300,000 in damages to Sultanah Nur Zahirah.
In today's proceedings, a three-member Apex Court bench led by Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan adjourned the hearing after Americk's audio began to break up.
The judge said the court would fix a new date for case management.
Other members of the bench were Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil.
On Dec 12, last year, the Court of Appeal overturned the lower court decision, which had dismissed Sultanah Nur Zahirah's RM100 million lawsuit against the editor.
The Appellate Court said it had considered several factors in providing compensation including a lack of remorse by Rewcastle-Brown.
"Rewcastle-Brown acknowledged that she had made an error in the book but declined to mention those errors during interviews with news portal Free Malaysia Today and Sarawak Report on Sept 18 and 27, 2018, respectively.
"The defendant (Rewcastle-Brown) also did not apologise to the plaintiff (Sultanah Nur Zahirah) at any time before the legal action was taken.
"In conclusion, the High Court clearly erred in dismissing the plaintiff's lawsuit," the court said.
The court said the image of Sultanah Nur Zahirah was badly tainted when she was linked with the fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low in the book.
"The editor also failed to show that the impugned statement was true."
The court also awarded costs of RM120,000 to be paid by the respondents.
Apart from Rewcastle-Brown, the Sultanah also named book publisher Gerakbudaya Enterprise and printer Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd as the other defendants.
Sultanah Nur Zahirah claimed RM100 million in damages from each of the defendants and wanted the second defendant, the publisher, to withdraw the books containing the defamatory statements as well as to stop the third defendant, the printing company, from printing more copies of the book.
In their statement of defence, the three defendants denied that they had accused Sultanah Nur Zahirah of being involved in corrupt practices.
Rewcastle-Brown contended that Sarawak Report did not suggest that the Sultanah was involved in a conspiracy that involved Low or that she was involved in the government administration associated with 1MDB matters.