In her application filed early this month, she said the charge must be quashed as it was done in bad faith, was malicious in nature, and an abuse of the court process and prosecutorial powers.
Yasmeen Soh Sha-Nisse, a counsel for Rewcastle Brown, said case management had been fixed before a High Court deputy registrar on Dec 2.
Rewcastle Brown authored the book, The Sarawak Report – The Inside Story of the 1MDB Expose, released in Malaysia in September 2018.
After its release, the Sultanah filed a defamation suit against her and publishers Gerakbudaya Enterprise and Chong Ton Sin, and printer Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd.
She also filed an application for her suit to be decided by summary judgment under Order 14A.
On Dec 13, 2019, the High Court said that in the face of the suit, the defendants had defamed the Sultanah and she need not come to court to give evidence.
However, on Aug 28 this year, the Court of Appeal allowed the defendants’ appeal and held that the “bane and antidote” (sting and the cure) was an ingredient defence in the defamation suit.
The Sultanah is now expected to take the stand when the defamation trial begins next month.
Rewcastle Brown said in September that she had been charged in the Kuala Terengganu magistrates’ court with criminal defamation over the identical article said to be the subject matter of the defamation action.
She said the charge was framed against her by the prosecution following a police report lodged by an aide of the Sultanah.
She said a fair and impartial trial cannot be conducted in Kuala Terengganu as potential and unwarranted influence would be exerted by various quarters on the magistrate to ensure a conviction against her.
“The only way there will be no miscarriage of justice is to have the charge transferred and tried in Kuala Lumpur,” she said.
She said the charge ought to be quashed as it was done in bad faith, was malicious in nature, and an abuse of the court process and prosecutorial powers.
She said the prosecution should not have charged her as the Sultanah had opted for a civil remedy in defamation.
“Criminal defamation is a ‘backdoor way’ of getting ‘even’ with the applicant (Rewcastle Brown) in the light of the Court of Appeal decision,” the motion said.