Saturday, May 23, 2009

Police raided DAP HQ



Eleven police officers came to DAP HQ located at No. 24, Jalan 20/9, Taman Paramount, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor just now at about 6:250pm together Ooi Leng Hang, 34, one of those who were detained in a candle light vigil in Pandan Indah.

Ooi Leng Hang is a DAP councillor for Hulu Selangor District Council and is also a graphic and animation designer for the DAP HQ.

He was brought hand-cuffed to the DAP HQ by the police, who came in three police cars led by ASP Kamal Khan bin Mohd Shariff from IPD Ampang Jaya. 

I was informed that the search was without a police warrant. One of our HQ staffs who were working then could not help but to allow the police to enter the HQ as the police officer only flashed his ID card in front of him without allowing him the opportunity to check the details of the ID card of the police officer. Then there was another officer requesting for the IC of our staff. It was also informed that the police came to search under Police Act.

Police officers came and took away Ooi's CPU, LCD screen, keyboard, mouse, headphone etc. Several pictures were also taken inside the office. 19 DVDs and a portable hard disk were also taken away. Our staffs were then ensuring that unauthorized items which does not belong to Ooi were not taken away.

Other DAP leaders, i.e Tony Pua, Gobind Singh, Ronnie Liu, Tan Kok Wai, Fong Kui Lun and me arrived later to assist. 

Question arise as to whether the police is authorized to carry out a search without any warrant. 

Gobind said that he asked ASP Kamal to let him under which provision of law that the search was conducted. ASP Kamal said at first he is conducting the search under Police Act, but Gobind rebutted that Police Act has no relation with such police search. ASP Kamal then called his colleague and was later told that the search was conducted under Printing, Press and Publication Act (APPP).

"Under Section 16 of APPP, there is a requirement of search warrant but the police who conduct the search did not produce any search warrant and this had intruded civilians' privacy," Gobind said.

Gobind also further explained that the requirement of a search warrant can only be excluded if the evidences required could be easily destroyed, prompting the police to conduct a quick search without warrant to secure the evidence. [Draft version from DAP HQ by Lau Weng San]

1 comment:

NEO said...

U see, I told you that Police is targeting at Jenice Lee under the Printing & Pub Act.

Look like a by-election is on the way. If Jenice is charge with > 18 months ...

There is double agent in DAP. beware!

Please do not let 3 party to handle your personal notebook computer!