3 held in probe into alleged insults against Johor royals, Islam

 Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad says authorities are looking into the defamatory content disseminated on TikTok.

Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad said two women and a man, aged between 17 and 49 years, have been arrested. (Bernama pic)

JOHOR BAHRU:

 Police have detained three individuals, including a 17-year-old teenager, to assist in an investigation into the dissemination of content on the TikTok application said to contain elements of incitement, defamation, and insults against Islam, the Johor royal institution, and the Johor police chief.

Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad said the two women and a man, aged between 17 and 49 years, were arrested in Taman Saujana here.

“Police received a report from a local man who detected a video uploaded by the owner of the account ‘ratunurputribalqis’ which allegedly contained defamatory statements,” he said in a statement.

The content in the post included claims that the Johor sultan and the Tengku Mahkota Johor, as well as the prime minister, sought advice from the account owner in preparing speech texts.

Additionally, the content also displayed defamatory claims that the Johor sultan kept the account owner’s identification documents for certain purposes related to teachings she promoted.

The post also included accusations against the Johor state Islamic religious department, claiming it was involved in misconduct and corruption. It also claimed that obligatory prayers would revert to two rakaat and voluntary prayers to one rakaat.

Rahaman said checks found that the suspects had no prior records and initial urine screening tests were negative.

He added that several items were seized for investigation, and they would be remanded for four days until April 3.

The case is being investigated under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948, Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, and Sections 298 and 500 of the Penal Code.

Meanwhile, Johor Bahru South police chief Raub Selamat said in a separate statement that the items seized included a jacket, mobile phones, glasses, rings, necklaces, bracelets, a table and a Quran.

Earlier, Johor Islamic religious affairs committee chairman Fared Khalid said strict action based on existing laws and enactments in Johor would be taken against those involved in deviant teachings.

This followed the spread of several video clips on social media found to contain misleading and deviant teachings, including one featuring an individual claiming to be “Ruhul Qudus, Ruhul Amin, Raja Muhammad or in my previous physical realm, Muhammad Putra Aminah.” - FMT