Lawyer Americk Sidhu said Hadi was not the affected party as Sarawak Report did not explicitly mention his name in the contentious report.
“In the United Kingdom, a political party cannot sue anyone for defamation,” he told FMT in response to the suit filed by Hadi on April 21.
Rewcastle-Brown confirmed accepting the writ and statement of claim but had left it to her lawyers to handle the case.
Americk said the number of people in the UK who read Sarawak Report was restricted.
He said if Hadi had filed the suit in Malaysia where the people understood the issue better, Hadi could claim to be aggrieved due to the wide readership.
In the event Rewcastle-Brown decides to defend the suit, Americk said she could apply to the court for security for costs against Hadi as he was a foreign litigant.
“She could ask Hadi to deposit in advance, say 500,000 British Pounds, to cover the legal expenses in case the PAS president loses his case,” he said.
Americk said asking Hadi to deposit money in a solicitors account was crucial, more so as the political leader portrayed himself as a man of modest means.
“Expenses arising from a defamation suit are very expensive in the UK and there must be a guarantee that the defendant will be compensated,” the lawyer said.
Last week, PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan said Hadi had filed the suit against Sarawak Report at the London High Court.
Takiyuddin had said PAS was seeking substantial damages and an injunction to compel Sarawak Report to remove the article titled “As Najib Denies All Over 1MDB, Let’s Not Forget His Many Other Criminal Connections”.
The suit is over a claim in the article that RM90 million was “reckoned” to have entered the accounts of top PAS leaders to woo them into supporting Umno and the Barisan Nasional.
PAS’ lawyer in London, Carter-Ruck, had sent a letter of demand to Rewcastle-Brown last December, seeking an apology and the removal of the article but she declined.
PAS has also set up a special fund to collect money at its muktamar for the “costly” legal expenses of the suit.
The Islamist party wants to raise RM200,000 to cover the legal cost.
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