UPDATE 2
By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — The law firm of two lawyers acting for Catholic newspaper Herald was found to have been broken into early this morning.
The law firm of Fernandez and Selvarajah is located on Jalan Yong Shook Lin, Petaling Jaya, in a row of shop houses opposite the Civic Centre and about 10 minutes’ walk from the police district headquarters.
Lawyer Derek Fernandez was the first of the firm’s three partners to arrive at the crime scene at about 8.15am, when he alerted the police through his handphone.
“This is a staged robbery,” he told reporters while waiting for the police investigating officer (IO) in a handphone shop downstairs.
The firm occupies the second and third floors, above the handphone shop and a tuition centre. Only the main office on the second floor was ransacked. The perpetrators failed to break the padlock on the third-floor grille.
“It appears some documents are missing,” he said. But he said he was unsure which exactly, as he has not stepped inside the room yet.
Fernandez suspects it may be related to the “Allah” court case, which is being appealed by the Home Ministry.
“The handphone shop downstairs was not touched. It was a very professional job,” the lawyer added.
A close-circuit television (CCTV) camera on the first floor, which was put in a few years ago to monitor the staircase was sprayed over with black paint.
A laptop belonging to the firm’s female partner was also taken.
“I think they believe my laptop contained information on the church case,” said the woman lawyer, who declined to give her name.
“It does but not the main part,” she disclosed when asked.
S. Selvarajah, who completes the partnership, told reporters the firm’s safe was also forced open and some documents which were kept there were also taken. He added that the firm did not keep any cash inside the safe.
This is not the first time the 13-year-old law firm has been burgled, Selvarajah said when asked.
The first time was some seven to eight years ago, he said, before grilles and padlocks were added to enhance security.
The firm set up at its current premises in 1996.
This morning’s break-in was first discovered by the firm’s receptionist, when she arrived at 7.55am.
Declining to be named, she told reporters she noticed a rag lying on the floor when she was opening the ground floor grille.
Selangor CID deputy chief ACP Khaw Kok Chin said police were on the case and would take down statements from six people who hold keys to the office.
“We will investigate all angles,” Khaw told reporters at the scene when asked if there may be a link to the court controversy.
Several churches in the country have been attacked in the past two weeks, including with petrol bombs, since the High Court ruled that the church had the right under the federal constitution to publish the word “Allah” in the Christian sense.
Islamic groups, however, claim the word is reserved for Muslim use.
The Home Minister has appealed the court decision.
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