The Kuala Terengganu High Court has ordered a retrial of Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown’s criminal defamation case, which saw her sentenced to two years’ jail last year.

Judge Radzi Harun today ruled that the proceedings before the previous magistrate amounted to a mistrial, as the court had erred in applying Section 425A of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allows a criminal trial to proceed in the absence of the accused.

He subsequently set aside...