KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 — Former journalist Sidek Kamiso slammed those who said the hours-long raid carried out at Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s house was unwarranted.
Venting on Facebook, he also criticised a news portal for failing to name a source close to the former prime minister who said so, saying they likely never experienced being raided in the wee hours of the morning, unlike him.
“To those who said ‘tak patut’, you have never experienced having your house raided at 5am in the morning so hold your high moral horses,” said Sidek.
He demanded the news portal name the source.
A news portal reported an individual close to Najib as criticising the police for raiding the former PM’s home of the eve of Ramadan.
Stating that it was unwarranted, the source said that Najib should be accorded better courtesy by virtue of being a former PM.
He also shared a photograph of Najib falling asleep on a sofa wearing a red baju Melayu while police commercial crime officers carried out the raid in his house.
“This is uncalled for. Why couldn’t they conduct the search earlier? He has to prepare for Sahur (pre-fasting meal) soon,” the source said, as quoted in the report.
In September 2016, Sidek was arrested twice, the first for his Twitter post allegedly related to the death of PAS spiritual adviser Datuk Haron Din and the second for a tweet deemed an insult to Islam.
In the first arrest, he was woken up at about 4.30am and taken from his Petaling Jaya home and sent to Johor Baru.
Police also searched his house in the predawn raid while his wife and two young children and their friend were there, despite not having a search warrant.
According to provisions under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act that criminalises online content deemed offensive, the law enforcers are empowered to do so.
In the second incident, he was picked up for a few hours questioning and was released a few hours later.
