The Straits Times reported that the editor of the whistleblower website was interviewed briefly as she was about to leave for Malaysia.

Sarawak Report had earlier said on its Facebook page that Rewcastle-Brown was detained at 1am following a “mystery blacklisting” from two years ago, which prevents her from entering or leaving the city-state.

“A short interview was conducted as part of the immigration clearance process. Our records showed that she departed Singapore 16 minutes later,” the ICA said in response to queries from The Straits Times.

Rewcastle-Brown had been in Singapore to launch her 528-page book, “The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story of the 1MDB Expose”, which chronicles the probe into the sovereign wealth fund scandal. The book launch was held two days ago at The Agora.

The “mystery blacklisting” follows a series of travel bans imposed against the editor, who made several exposes on the scandal. In July 2013, Rewcastle-Brown had been barred from entering the Kuching International Airport, and was put on a plane for Singapore after being detained at the airport.

An arrest warrant was issued by a court here in August 2015, over her alleged involvement in “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” and the “dissemination of false reports”.

However, after Pakatan Harapan (PH) won the May 9 general election, the arrest warrant for Rewcastle-Brown was revoked by the authorities and she was able to enter the country with no trouble on May 18.