High Court orders retrial of Rewcastle-Brown over sultanah defamation

High Court orders retrial of Rewcastle-Brown over sultanah defamation


Published: Dec 14, 2025 2:12 PM
Updated: 5:26 PM


The Kuala Terengganu High Court has ordered a retrial of Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown’s criminal defamation case, which saw her sentenced to two years’ jail last year.

Judge Radzi Harun today ruled that the proceedings before the previous magistrate amounted to a mistrial, as the court had erred in applying Section 425A of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allows a criminal trial to proceed in the absence of the accused.

He subsequently set aside Rewcastle-Brown’s conviction for criminally defaming Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah, as well as the jail sentence imposed by the magistrate.

“As this court has declared a mistrial, the charge against the appellant (Rewcastle-Brown) still subsists and the criminal principle of autrefois acquit or autrefois convict does not apply in favour of the appellant.

“Unless the public prosecutor decides otherwise within his powers under Article 145(3) of the Federal Constitution and Section 376(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, I order the case to be mentioned before a new magistrate with a view that a retrial be held on the same charge against the appellant.

“The magistrate shall then resummon the prosecution’s witnesses and record their evidence in the absence of the appellant pursuant to Section 401(1) of the Code.

“Any such deposition may, upon the arrest of the appellant at any later date, be given in evidence against her at the trial for the offence with which she is charged, pursuant to Section 401(2) of the Code,” he said in allowing Rewcastle-Brown’s appeal against the lower court’s decision.

Charged in absentia

Rewcastle-Brown was charged in absentia on Sept 23, 2021 under Section 500 of the Penal Code with criminal defamation over her book “The Sarawak Report - The Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposé”.

Section 500 provides a punishment of up to two years imprisonment, or a fine, or both.

The case centred on a paragraph in the initial edition of the book that mentioned the sultanah and which, according to the charge sheet, contained the offending words in line seven of paragraph four on page three.

“(It) contains accusations against Sultanah Nur Zahirah as underlined ‘the wife of the sultan’, which is libel where you have cause to believe that the accusation will spoil the good name of Sultanah Nur Zahirah,” the charge sheet stated.

The charge sheet claimed the book was written at Lot 60048, Taman Chenderiang 21080, in Kuala Terengganu at 8am on Sept 14, 2018.

However, later editions of the book removed the paragraph in question.

The trial proceeded without Rewcastle-Brown’s presence and concluded on Feb 7, 2024, with magistrate Nik Tarmizie Nik Shukri finding her guilty and sentencing her to two years’ jail.

The author filed an appeal against the conviction through her lawyer Guok Ngek Seong a day after the verdict.