PETALING JAYA: The Edge Media Group publisher and group chief executive officer (CEO) Ho Kay Tat and The Malaysian Insider (TMI) CEO Jahabar Sadiq were released yesterday as the police did not apply to remand them, said their lawyer Syahredzan Johan.

The media executives had their statements taken after which they were released on police bail, the lawyer had tweeted.

“Jahabar Sadiq and Ho Kay Tat have been released on police bail. Their statements are being taken now at Dang Wangi,” Syahredzan tweeted.

Ho and Jahabar left the Dang Wangi police district headquarters, where they had spent the night in the lock-up after being arrested on Tuesday when they came to the police station to give their statements.

They are being investigated over a report published by The Malaysian Insider on March 25 on the Conference of Rulers and the proposed amendment of a law to allow hudud to be enforced in Kelantan.

Leaving the police station, Ho said they were treated well by the police, and both he and Jahabar had cooperated with them.

Ho left the station first, and Jahabar came out a while later.

“They took all our statements professionally. I’m on the wrong side of the camera and I want to continue being a journalist,” Jahabar said.

In addition to the two executives, three TMI editors were arrested on Monday evening, when police and officers of the Malaysian Multimedia and Communications Commission came to the portal’s newsroom at the offices of The Edge Media Group in Mutiara Damansara here.

The three were managing editor Lionel Morais, Bahasa Malaysia news editor Amin Shah Iskandar, and features and analysis editor Zulkifli Sulong. Police had checked Morais’ computer and his emails, and then interviewed the three before arresting them.

The trio were released on Tuesday night after police failed to obtain a remand order for them.

Additionally, two subeditors, a reporter, the portal’s human resources manager and IT administrator were also questioned on Tuesday. The article said the Conference of Rulers rejected a proposal to amend a federal law to pave the way for hudud to be implemented in Kelantan.

The proposal was in a report by the joint hudud technical committee, which comprised Kelantan state religious officials and those from the federal government.

The joint committee had prepared the report on the proposed amendments for the rulers to consider at their meeting on March 11, but did not go through.

The Keeper of the Ruler’s Seal then lodged a police report on March 26 to deny that the Conference of Rulers had discussed hudud, and to say that it had never issued any statement on hudud in Kelantan.

Kedah Umno Youth had also lodged a report and called for action against TMI. Umno MPs also complained about the portal in Parliament, while Utusan Malaysia carried several reports denouncing the website. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 2, 2015.