“A report has been received. It was more like a denial. We have completed the investigation paper and sent it to the deputy public prosecutor for further instructions this afternoon,” Shah Alam police chief Iqbal Ibrahim told reporters on WhatsApp.
Earlier, a report and a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) claimed that a news reporter was caught trespassing on the premises in Shah Alam, Selangor.
The supervisor of the residence, Musa Zin, lodged a police report saying he was informed that a man, suspected to be a Harakah reporter, was caught hiding in the backseat of a car about to enter the residence.
The other person in the car was apparently scheduled to attend a meeting there.
According to the report, the suspect was believed to have been denied permission to enter the residence before the alleged attempt to trespass.
However, Harakah said the individual had not been denied permission, but had instead attended the meeting at the invitation of Kampung Sungai Sireh residents and in the capacity of a local NGO, Gerakan Pertubuhan Ummah.
The PAS mouthpiece said the meeting was held to discuss the state government’s attempts to acquire the land in Kampung Sungai Sireh for the development of the East Coast Rail Link project.
“Among those who have been a voice of the people is Suffi Kamari, who is also a Harakah staffer.
“Suffi and the two other Harakah staffers did not trespass, but had been allowed into the official residence.
“They managed to attend the meeting with the menteri besar. The issue only came up after the meeting was over, when they were arrested (after being told they had) trespassed on the menteri besar’s official residence,” said Harakah’s chief operating officer, Nadzir Helmi.
Nadzir said it was disappointing that the trio’s faces had been “irresponsibly made viral on social media (and) the matter portrayed inaccurately to the detriment of their dignity”.
“There has been an attempt to implicate Harakah as a news company with inaccurate stories of the matter, (which we) suspect is an attempt to ruin the company’s image.
“Harakah would like to clarify that the story disseminated on social media and the newspapers is not accurate and does not reflect the reality of what happened.”
He said Harakah would continue to defend the dignity and credibility of the trio and continue to cooperate with the authorities in their investigation.