Malaysian Insider's top bosses Ho and Jahabar detained

KUALA LUMPUR: Barely a day after three senior editors of Malaysian Insider were held under the Sedition Act, the web news portal's publisher Ho Kay Tat and chief executive officer Jahabar Sadiq were detained for questioning today.
Ho and Jahabar had turned up to be quizzed at the Dang Wangi police headquarters here at about 9am.
They were summoned over a news report published last week in Malaysian Insider that claimed the royal institution had opposed to the amendment of the Federal Constitution to enable hudud laws to be implemented.
Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar in his official Twitter account said: "PDRM confirms the arrest at 11am of two more staff of TMI (The Malaysian Insider) to assist in investigations. Any activity of a seditious nature will not be tolerated."
In an immediate reaction, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi denied having any direct connection with the arrests of five top executives from TMI as it was a police operational activity.
He told reporters at the Parliament lobby that he is not "directly involved" in police operational activities.
"As a minister, I cannot interfere in police orders. Operational activities are under the purview of a certain department.
"This is an operational action, probably because of the police report lodged by the Council of Rulers. That is purely the responsibility of the police," Ahmad Zahid said.
The arrest follows the Conference of Rulers denying there was truth in the report and palace officials lodged a police report on Thursday.
As investigations kicked off soon after, police raided the news portal's office in Mutiara Damansara on Monday before arresting its managing editor Lionel Morais and two other senior editors - Amin Shah Iskandar and Zulkifli Sulong.
Kuala Lumpur CID chief SAC Zainuddin Ahmad said the two staff, aged 47 and 56, held today were arrested under Section 4(1)(c) of the Sedition Act 1948.
Their mobile telephones were also seized, he said.