PUTRAJAYA (Aug 24): The Sultanah of Terengganu, Sultanah Nur Zahirah, will have to testify in her RM100 million defamation suit at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown and two others.
This follows a three-member bench at the appellate court today granting Rewcastle Brown's appeal for the trial to proceed based on testimonies of witnesses, and not merely through affidavits and questions of law.
Justice Datuk Zabidin Md Diah, who led the bench, said the decision was unanimous.
He said the High Court cannot rule that a portion of the passage in the book The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposé will be the subject of a trial, while the three other passages were left out.
"The publication of the book must be read as a whole. It cannot be truncated under Order 14A of Rules of Court 2012. The plaintiff (Tuanku Nur Zahirah) ought not to pursue under Order 14A. It must be determined at trial.
“Questions 1, 2 and 3 will be determined at trial as with Question 4. We allow the appeal and set aside the decision on Dec 13, 2019,” he said in proceedings that were conducted online.
The two other judges sitting with Justice Zabidin were Justices Datuk ES Nantha Balan and Datuk Lee Heng Chong.
Rewcastle Brown, Gerakbudaya Enterprise publisher Chong Ton Sin and printer Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd were named as defendants following the publication of the book on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), which was originally named Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) in 2009 before becoming 1MDB.
They were represented by former Federal Court judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram while the Sultanah was represented by AK Vishnu Kumar and Datuk Mohd Haziq Pillay.
Sri Ram had argued that the passages should have been heard together in the trial as it makes it difficult for the succeeding trial judge not to consider the three passages and focus on the fourth passage in question.
Vishnu Kumar had argued that this can be done by the new judge by treating the deemed fourth contention paragraph in isolation.
She was appealing the 2019 High Court decision by Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim (now Court of Appeal judge) in allowing Sultanah Nur Zahirah's application to dispense with the need for her to testify in person in her defamation suit. The court granted her application under Order 14A for the case to be decided through points of law.
The Sultanah in her suit has alleged that Rewcastle Brown made a disparaging statement about her in the book.
She claimed that the statement could be taken to mean that she was involved in corrupt practices and interfered in the state's administration, besides using her status to influence the establishment of the TIA, which later became 1MDB.
Sultanah Nur Zahirah also alleged that the statement had construed her as having helped businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) become the adviser of TIA.
She contended that she had never involved herself in the administration of Terengganu and establishment of TIA, therefore the statement had slandered and tarnished her reputation.
The Sultanah is claiming general damages of RM100 million from each defendant and also seeking an order for the publisher to withdraw the book and for the printer to stop printing it.