The terms of the settlement are not known, something agreed between the parties.
Hadi is said to have consented to withdraw his claims against the British journalist. Likewise, Rewcastle-Brown has agreed to withdraw her counterclaims against Hadi. No order was made as to costs.
The suit was filed by Hadi at the London High Court over Rewcastle-Brown’s article in Sarawak Report on Aug 6, 2017.
She alleged that RM90 million was “reckoned” to have entered the accounts of top PAS leaders to woo them into supporting Umno and Barisan Nasional.
In her counter-claim, filed on Oct 11 the same year, Rewcastle-Brown said Hadi had conspired with then prime minister Najib Razak or his agents to discredit her and Sarawak Report.
In the earlier interlocutory proceedings in the London High Court last year, the court ordered Rewcastle-Brown to pay the cost of £28,900 (RM156,017) to Hadi.
Following this, Hadi and his team had made much fuss about him winning the suit whereas the truth is, it was only a decision by the court to penalise Rewcastle-Brown for procedural irregularities in her interlocutory applications to the suit.
No arguments were heard nor any decision made on the merits of the case. The trial to determine the merits of the case had been set for April 2019.
Many other parties had also made similar allegations against PAS. Former PAS vice-president Husam Musa claimed to have seen for himself evidence that PAS leaders had received money from Umno to the tune of more than RM90 million.
In a statutory declaration, Rafizi Ramli even named the former PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa as a recipient of the embezzled funds from 1MDB.
Hadi and PAS leaders had responded then by threatening to sue both Husam and Rafizi for slander and libel. But as things went by, nothing happened.
No surprise
After the May 9 polls, the PAS side had been mulling and hinting of the likelihood of withdrawing the suit.
Observers were not at all surprised by this change of heart considering that it was a questionable move in the first place in terms of political wisdom and expediency to commence the said legal action.
Needless to say, the action was fraught with danger and the risk of an inconvenient truth being exposed at the trial.
There was more of a downside than upside to Hadi and PAS in this litigation.
Secondly, speculations were rife that persons linked to Umno were backing and funding Hadi in the suit. Now with Umno gone from the seat of government, PAS would be facing the prospect of having to raise huge funds on its own to defray the legal costs and expenses for the suit.
‘I stood my ground’
After the said settlement between the parties by way of a consent order, Rewcastle-Brown said she stood by the allegations in her article, adding that the article remained online despite attempts to silence and discredit her.
She stood by her allegations and averments that RM90 million had been credited into the accounts of top PAS leaders in return of their support for Umno and BN. It means that she did not recant on her said allegations and averments.
Not only is the said article still in her blog in its original version, unaltered, but we could also take it, at least for now, that the said allegations as contained therein are no longer being disputed or challenged by Hadi.
Does that amount to an admission?
Legally speaking, we are not in a position to make any definitive conclusions about the merit of the case as we have no inkling as to the terms of the settlement agreed between the parties.
But it could be said that Rewcastle-Brown has good reason to claim moral victory from this dramatic volte-face by Hadi.
Politically speaking, the impact and implications to the latest turn of events are more ominous and adverse to Hadi and PAS than to Rewcastle-Brown.
In the world of politics, perceptions are often more lethal and important than truth. It will put Hadi on the defensive in relation to the said subject matter.
There is nothing to prevent the people from thinking and speculating that Hadi’s act of withdrawing the suit would only serve to confirm Rewcastle-Brown’s allegations and averments.
It will come as no surprise to us if after this, that some quarters will exert more or new pressure on the authorities to investigate the allegations against Hadi and his team.
It is learnt that the authorities had already commenced an investigation quite some time back but so far nothing has come out of it.
People want to know the truth and they are perfectly entitled to it. More so against a party which purports to champion the noble cause of Islam and which projects a holier-than-thou image.
The new narrative of transparency under Malaysia Baru should compel the government to act without fear or favour against any party.
There must be closure. If there is no truth to the said allegations and averments, then PAS too must be vindicated and freed from lingering adverse perceptions in the court of public opinion.
Wan Haron Wan Hassan is a senior practising lawyer and FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.