KUALA LUMPUR – Sarawak Report founder and editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown has been sentenced to two years in jail by the Kuala Terengganu magistrates court for committing criminal defamation against Sultanah Terengganu Nur Zahirah.
Magistrate Nik Mohd Tarmizie Nik Mohd Shukri sentenced the blogger after finding her guilty under Section 500 of the Penal Code.
The offence was committed on September 14, 2018 at about 8am at Lot 60048, Taman Chendering Utama, in Kuala Terengganu, where she wrote a book titled ‘The Sarawak Report- The Inside Story of the 1MDB Expose’.
On page 3, paragraph 4, line 7, contained defamatory statements couched under ‘the wife of the sultan’. This accusation has damaged the reputation of Sultanah Nur Zahirah, according to the charge.
Rewcastle-Brown did not appear in court.
On December 12 last year, the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya ordered Rewcastle-Brown, Gerakbudaya Enterprise and Vinlin Press to pay RM300,000 in damages and RM120,000 in legal costs to Sultanah Nur Zahirah.
This comes after the three-person bench found that Rewcastle-Brown had defamed the sultanah in the book.
In her statement of claim, the sultanah sought general damages of RM100 million from each respondent and an order for the publisher to withdraw the book containing the alleged defamatory statement and for the printer to stop printing the book. – February 7, 2024