Malaysia: Arrest warrant issued for Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown

An arrest warrant has been issued for the founder and editor of Sarawak Report Clare Rewcastle-Brown for activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy, the Malaysian police have said.

In a statement issued by the Federal Criminal Investigation Department director Commissioner Mohamad Salleh, he said: "We will proceed with applications to place her on the Aseanpol wanted list, as well as the Interpol red notice."

The arrest warrant has been issued for offences under Section 124B and 1241 of the Penal Code, the New Straits Times reported.

Section 124B covers involvement in activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy while Section 1241 covers disseminating false reports.

London based Rewcastle-Brown, who is the sister-in-law of former UK prime minister and chancellor Gordon Brown, is accused of conspiring with Malaysia's opposition lawmakers to publish forged documents on state fund 1 Malaysia Development Berhad in a bid to sabotage Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The former BBC reporter who was born in Sarawak, also runs Radio Free Sarawak.

When contacted by The Star, she described the issue of the arrest warrant as "counter-productive" saying that the Malaysian police would not be able to extradite her from the UK as the offences she is being accused of do not exist in Britain.

The Sarawak Report website was blocked in Malaysia last month for posing a "threat to national stability" after posting reports that Najib had up to $700m deposited into his personal accounts from 1MDB. A government investigation has found that the funds deposited in Najib's accounts were from donations and not from the state fund.

Brown says Najib has given her wider platform to discuss issues

In an interview with Channel News Asia, Brown said: "They are trying to arrest me for some kind of action against democracy, which is ironic given t hat it is the Malaysian government which has been taking actions against democracy by silencing free media and closing down my blog and indeed several newspapers and arresting a number of people who have done nothing more than raise some perfectly valid issues."

She added "I don't think they have a chance in h**ll of extraditing me from the UK."

When asked what she plans to do next, she said that she is currently besieged by media interviews and plans to talk about the Malaysian prime minister "on a very wide platform."

"So in a way, he could not have done anything more counter-productive than to provide me with that platform to discuss some of the issues that are causing considerable alarm at the moment."

She said despite the latest turn of events, she will continue to write about Malaysian issues.