Rewcastle Brown on Hadi dropping suit: I feel utterly vindicated

PETALING JAYA: A Sarawak Report story that led to a defamation suit by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang remains online even after the case was settled out of court.

When contacted, Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown said the article was still online as Abdul Hadi had dropped the suit.

"He dropped his complaint ... It is no longer being contested," she said.

Rewcastle Brown declined to disclose the terms of the settlement, saying that it was agreed that it would stay private.

On the settlement of the suit, she said she felt "utterly vindicated".

"If anyone thought they could bully me with legal bullying, they were wrong," she said.

It was reported earlier Saturday (Feb 2) that Abdul Hadi had agreed to an out-of-court settlement for his defamation suit against the UK-based editor.

Both he and Rewcastle Brown were bound by an undisclosed agreement regarding this settlement, said a statement by Abdul Hadi's political secretary Syahir Sulaiman.

The Marang MP finalised the out-of-court settlement through a consent order dated Feb 1 at the London High Court of Justice.

Syahir said Abdul Hadi reached the decision after scrutinising all the court action taken against him by Rewcastle Brown and after taking into account his lawyer's advice.

PAS sued Rewcastle Brown for libel after she published an article on Aug 6, 2016, alleging that the party had received RM90mil in bribes from Umno.

She filed a counterclaim on October 2017.

The Star has contacted Hadi for a comment but has yet to receive a response on the matter.