Malaysianow Editor S Phone Seized In Farhash Linked Probe

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The police seized a phone belonging to the editor of online news portal MalaysiaNow, in an ongoing probe linked to businessperson Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak.
Earlier today, the portal reported that editor Abdar Rahman Koya had been interrogated at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters under Section 203A of the Penal Code for the offence of “disclosure of confidential documents” and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act, concerning “improper use of network facilities or network services”.
The news portal’s lawyer, Rajesh Nagarajan, criticised the move as an “unsubstantiated investigation” aiming to intimidate journalists from reporting on issues of public concern.
“It is very important to allow journalists to do their work. If journalists write any article that is defamatory, sue them under the Defamation Act. Why use the police?” he said, according to MalaysiaNow.
ADS“This is an abuse of power by the police, where they are chasing after my client without any basis. It is truly unacceptable,” he added.
According to Rajesh, this has been the third time Rahman has been questioned by the police, as part of its ongoing investigation into the portal’s report from July 2025, which linked Farhash to the ongoing Sabah mining scandal.
Lawyer Rajesh NagarajanRajesh further added that his client had been “hounded” by the police, and described it as intimidation tactics used to make journalists “think twice” before publishing their reports.
“We do not want journalists to think twice if the matter is true. Just write it, let the people judge. But journalists are afraid to write because they get arrested, their phones get seized, they have to go to the police station, and they have to call a lawyer.
“This is a rotten trick or technique to ensure that journalists do not write about any issue involving figures associated with the current government,” he added.
Sabah mining scandal
On July 21, MalaysiaNow published documents allegedly proving that Farhash, who is also Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s former aide, had received authorisation to prospect for minerals across a massive forest reserve in Sabah.
State-owned Sabah Mineral Management (SMM) Sdn Bhd and its CEO, Natasha Sim, who were implicated in the case, also took the matter to court, seeking gag orders against MalaysiaNow and Rahman, over articles on the scandal.
Businessperson Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal MubarakFarhash, together with Bumi Suria Sdn Bhd and Aminudin Mustapha, filed a defamation suit against MalaysiaNow and Rahman on July 10, seeking RM10 million in damages over articles they claimed tarnished their reputation in the corporate world.
In their affidavits, the plaintiffs said the news articles affected their careers and business ties by depicting them as having abused their positions to obtain a mining licence illegally.
Apart from financial damages, the plaintiffs are also seeking aggravated, exemplary, and punitive damages, as well as a court order for the defendants to publish a full, unconditional, and public apology on the portal.
They also want five percent interest per annum and for the articles to be removed from the news site.
On Sept 9, MACC cleared Farhash of alleged links to the Sabah mining scandal, after investigations revealed that no exploration licence was issued to a company owned by the businessperson. - Mkini

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