[UPDATE at 8:56pm: this article has been updated with details from a Police statement on the matter]

Editor of local sociopolitical news website TheOnlineCitizen (TOC) Terry Xu has said he is under police investigation regarding a series of articles the site put out about a Singaporean who was in 2015 held in Malaysia.

In a Facebook post on Friday (Mar. 13) morning, Xu wrote that police officers confiscated his computers "once again", after they visited him at 7am:

He also stated that the articles were about the case of one Mohan Rajangam, and pointed out that he did not receive any notices under the Protection against Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) regarding the articles.

While Xu wrote in his post that the police did not have a warrant for confiscating his computers, a warrant is not required for the exercise of police powers in relation to investigations for alleged contempt of court under the Administration of Justice (Protection) Act 2016 (AJPA), if authorised to do so by the Attorney General.

What is the suspected offence?

The offence of contempt of court under Section 3(1)(b) of the APJA, and for which Xu said that he was being investigated, is also known as "sub judice" contempt and originates from rules in place to protect jurors from material which might prejudice their decision.

Section 3(1)(b) covers the publication of material that prejudices or interferes with the course of any pending court proceeding.

It also covers the publication of material that "poses a real risk" of such prejudice or interference.

One of the ways that this can happen is if the published material prejudges an issue in a pending court proceeding.

Who is Mohan Rajangam?

Mohan is a Singapore citizen who was extradited to Malaysia back in 2015 after a warrant of arrest for murder was issued against him by the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP).

He was, according to the Singapore Police in January, involved and in regular contact with members of a Malaysian gang. The gang was linked to a murder reported in Penang that year.

The RMP wanted custody of Mohan to facilitate its investigations into this particular murder, as he was believed to be involved in the gang's drug activities, and to have harboured its members in his residence, as a house he rented in Johor had been used by some of the gang's members to hide from the police after a shootout.

The Singapore Police said, in a statement issued on Jan. 17, that it then arrested Mohan on suspicion of his involvement in drug and gang offences, which the force said he was informed of when they took him into custody.

Within the 48-hour period one is allowed to be held without being charged, the police searched his home in Singapore on March 23, 2015, with the powers they had arising from the arrestable offence, provided under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The RMP's warrant of arrest was issued, passed to Singapore's police and endorsed by a local magistrate at the Singapore State Courts, on the same day. Mohan was then extradited to Malaysia into the RMP's custody, also within the day, on March 23, 2015.

The Singapore Police said that he was released from custody in Malaysia after the RMP decided not to take further action against him on July 15, 2015.

"Widespread, erroneous assumptions"

This information was shared by the Police back in Jan. 2020, in response to "widespread, erroneous assumptions on what happened in this case". This happened after TOC published a couple of articles about the case, following up from a TOC interview with Mohan towards the end of 2019.

What did the TOC articles say?

Human rights lawyer M Ravi was also reported by TOC to have taken Mohan's case to the High Court, having filed a petition for a criminal revision in the case.

Filing an application for a Criminal Revision is a way of requesting that the High Court examine the records of criminal proceedings before the State Courts, and to correct any irregularities that may be discovered.

TOC also reported subsequently that the application had been withdrawn owing to fact that the Police statement revealed that Mohan's custody had been transferred under a reciprocal arrangement between Singapore and Malaysia, and not under extradition law.

TOC articles also contended that some of the facts contained in the Police statement were untrue.

Police investigating 4 people including lawyer M Ravi

Police have issued a statement shared with Mothership confirming that they are investigating Xu, M. Ravi, Mohan, and a TOC writer by the name of “Danisha Hakeem”.

The subject of the investigation, according to police, is the publication of articles, as well as the Facebook posts linking to the articles. These, police said, contained details from an affidavit by Mohan, filed in support of Ravi's petition for Criminal Revision.

The Police also told Mothership they were authorised by the Attorney-General to initiate investigations as the "repeated publication of the contents of Mr Mohan’s affidavit [...] suggests a concerted effort by one or more persons to publicly advocate for Mr Mohan’s cause, ahead of the hearing of the [Criminal Revision]."

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Top photos via Terry Xu's Facebook page / TheOnlineCitizen's Facebook page