KUALA LUMPUR: A veteran legal practitioner said it was quite unusual for an alleged offending article to still be accessible online following a related out-of-court settlement of a defamation suit between Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and Sarawak Report.
Datuk Shaharudin Ali said for out-of-court settlement of such lawsuits, the terms would usually involve the retraction of the purported defamatory article from publication, whether online or print.
He said this was all the more so because there was no indication that Hadi is acceding to any purported truthfulness in the article, still made available at the online news portal.
“It is unusual that a settlement exists but the (alleged) offending article is still online.
“If a term of the settlement involves retraction of the article, it would have been done so.
“If I was Hadi’s lawyer, I would not have agreed to such terms as it would have appeared one-sided.
“If there is a (normal) settlement (of a defamation suit), we would put the parties (plaintiff and defendant) back to status quo (the position inhabited by the parties before both the lawsuit and the publication of the article).
“However, these are just my personal comments (based on what is available in the media) as I am not privy to the actual terms (of settlement between Hadi and Rewcastle-Brown),” he said when contacted today.
In a statement yesterday, Hadi’s political secretary Syahir Sulaiman said that “Hadi has decided to finalise an out-of-court settlement against Sarawak Report’s Clare Rewcastle-Brown through an order of consent, dated Feb 1, at the London High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division.”
The decision was reached after scrutinising the whole court action, as well as views from Hadi’s legal team.
Syahir said Hadi and Rewcastle-Brown had consented to withdraw claims and counterclaims, respectively.
“No orders as to costs and both parties are subjected to confidentiality agreement on settlement related terms.”
Hadi filed the defamation suit against Rewcastle-Brown over an allegedly defamatory article titled “As Najib Denies All Over 1MDB, Let’s Not Forget His Many Other Criminal Connections” published on Aug 6, 2016, which he had claimed was false.
The article alleged that Hadi had received RM90 million from Najib to get Pas to support Umno and Barisan Nasional.
At press time, the article is still accessible on Sarawak Report.
Meanwhile, another veteran legal practitioner Datuk Baljit Singh Sidhu today said that it was well within the right of parties to agree to any form of out-of-court settlement, even if it seemed ‘ridiculous’ to observers.
The lawyer said under the law, it was up to parties in a lawsuit on how they could come to an agreement to resolve a legal action.
“Even if it may seem ridiculous to outsiders, but between parties (in a lawsuit), (such a form of out-of-court) is okay,” he said.
He cautioned that other issues such as Pas supporters having donated RM2.1 million to fund Hadi’s legal action cost and allegation on the timing of the out-of-court settlement were political issues that were separate from the legal ones.