Police on trail of nudist group

GEORGE TOWN: Police are still tracking down six members of the nudist group who participated in the “Penang Nude Sports Games” in May.
According to Criminal Investigations Department chief SAC Mazlan Kesah, police are enlisting the help of Bukit Aman and Interpol to find the suspects, including a Malaysian.
“All six suspects have yet to turn themselves in to assist investigations, but we are confident that with help from Bukit Aman and Interpol, we will be able to trace them”, he said after attending a Hari Raya open house hosted by the Penang Federal Reserved Unit (FRU) police in Jalan Padang Tembak yesterday.
Mazlan also told reporters that police have detained nine of the 15 participants of the event, which was highlighted in a video on social media earlier this month. Five of them were remanded on Aug 17 and were released on police bail yesterday.
“It is now up to the attorney-general office to decide on the next course of action on the five released suspects,” he said, adding that police have completed all investigation papers on the case to be sent to the prosecutor’s office in Putrajaya.
He also said police have recorded a total of 29 statements from Penang National Park rangers and a total of 11 police reports have been lodged.
The video, said to have been made more than two months ago, was allegedly uploaded by a user identified only as “Albert” on a video-sharing website with the title “Penang Nude Sport Games 2014”. It caused an uproar among Malaysians and prompted the police to take action.
On Saturday, a Singapore permanent resident turned himself in at the Balik Pulau district police headquarters and was quoted in a Chinese language daily that the group of participants is sorry for the incident.