Rewcastle Brown, who was sentenced to prison for two years, expressed mixed feelings about appearing in court, saying that her presence could escalate the spectacle.

“There’s a part of me that would want to turn up, although I’m getting a lot of advice that it would not be helpful and might be an unnecessary distraction,” she said.

“It’s quite an embarrassing situation, and it would be even more embarrassing, I think, for everyone concerned, if I turned up and was dragged off in chains into a jail in Terengganu for two years.”

Rewcastle Brown made the remarks in a video call at a fundraising event organised by Engage, an NGO, aimed at raising RM292,000 to support her appeal.

On Tuesday, the Kuala Terengganu High Court ordered Rewcastle Brown to appear at case management of her appeal against a lower court decision made in her absence.

The British national was found guilty of defamation under Section 500 of the Penal Code by the magistrates’ court in Kuala Terengganu on Feb 7.

Rewcastle Brown, based in London, was convicted of defaming Sultanah Nur Zahirah in her book, The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story of 1MDB Exposé.