©The Malaysian Insider (Used by permission)
by ISTA KYRA SHARMUGAM, JENNIFER GOMEZ AND LOW HAN SHAUN
The Malaysian Insider managing editor Lionel Morais, Bahasa news editor Amin Iskandar and features and analysis editor Zulkifli Sulong were released at 8.20pm today from Dang Wangi police station.
The three were in good spirits despite spending the night at the Dang Wangi police station since yesterday evening.
"The police and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) have recorded statements from the three editors and (The Edge publisher) Ho Kay Tat.
"Unfortunately, Ho and (TMI CEO) Jahabar Sadiq will be detained at the Dang Wangi police station.
"Police will apply for their remand at 10.30am tomorrow, I'm not sure what the remaining duo will be charged with," said lawyer Syahredzan Johan.
Syahredzan also questioned why the newsmen had to be detained for 24 hours despite giving their full cooperation.
Asked why their statements were not taken within the stipulated time, Syahredzan said he believed it was due to the investigations being carried out by both the police and MCMC, which also involved taking statements from several TMI staff, including sub–editors, reporters and IT administrators.
DAP secretary–general Lim Guan Eng also joined a crowd of 50 reporters and activists who had gathered outside the police headquarters for a candlelight vigil.
This morning, the magistrates' court rejected the police's application to remand the trio and ordered the newsmen released by this evening.
They were arrested yesterday at The Edge Media Group's office in Mutiara Damansara in connection with a police report lodged by an official from the Conference of Rulers last week.
Police had also confiscated the editors' phones and a laptop to facilitate their investigation.
Two senior executives remain in detention – The Edge publisher Ho Kay Tat and The Malaysian Insider chief executive Jahabar Sadiq – who were detained today when they turned up at the Dang Wangi police station to record their statements at 10.30am.
The duo are expected to be detained for 24 hours pending a remand hearing in which police will apply for a remand order to continue their detention.
The arrests were made over a report published on March 25 which said that the Conference of Rulers had rejected a proposal to amend a federal law that would pave the way for hudud to be enforced in Kelantan.
The article said that the proposal to amend the law was in a report by the joint Hudud Technical Committee, which comprised of 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 it did not go through.
The Keeper of the Rulers' Seal lodged a police report on March 26 to deny that the Conference of Rulers had discussed the matter and that it had never issued any statement on hudud in Kelantan.
The newsmen are being investigated under Section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act 1948, which carries a maximum fine of RM5,000, a maximum three–year jail term or both.
They are also being investigated under Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998. – March 31, 2015.