Lester Melanyi's expose: Cops not ruling out detaining individuals involved

The police have not ruled out the possibility of detaining several individuals named in a complot to topple the government through undemocratic means as alleged by former Sarawak Tribune editor Lester Melanyi.

Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar however declined to comment further on the matter and called on all parties to give police the space to conduct their investigations thoroughly.

"This is a serious matter as I said earlier. The revelation was shocking and very serious and we needed to conduct our investigations as there is a possibility the people involved would be picked up for questioning," he told reporters after launching an auxilliary police cooperative at i-City here Wednesday.

Earlier, there were allegations on attempts to topple the government by creating an unstable situation in the country to affect national security.

The report also stated that an opposition leader met former PetroSaudi International Ltd executive Xavier Andre Justo to buy information from him to discredit the Malaysian Government.

Melanyi on Monday told The Star newspaper that he met several opposition leaders who wanted to purchase information to discredit the government relating to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in London two or three times in 2012 and 2013.

He had also claimed that some 90 percent of Sarawak Report's articles on 1MDB had been fabricated to undermine the government and topple Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

In the six-minute video, Melanyi also named a web site designer based in London who was allegedly paid by Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown to amend and fabricate emails based on forged agreements to appear as authentic.

Asked to confirm an allegation that an opposition leader was involved, Khalid said: "No comments, wait for the investigation."

He said investigations on the expose by Melanyi was conducted under Section 124 of the Penal Code as there were elements involving certain parties wanting to topple the government undemocratically.

Khalid added that the police had obtained statements from Melanyi and "we are following-up on what was said by the former editor in his recorded statement to the police."