Cops at Bersih office to question protest organisers

PETALING JAYA: A team of police personnel visited the Bersih headquarters here to record the statements of four people in connection with Wednesday’s rally to protest the tabling of the redelineation motion in Parliament.

Bersih secretariat manager Mandeep Singh said about three police personnel came to the office at about 10am yesterday to record his statement along with three others, including Bersih 2.0 executive director Yap Swee Seng.

“However, only Yap was present at the time.

“As such, Yap did not agree to have his statement recorded at that time and insisted on having lawyers present,” he said.

Mandeep said the four of them would cooperate and be present at the Dang Wangi police district headquarters at a later date.

“We are discussing with our lawyers on when we will go there.

“Actually, if the police had informed us earlier, we would have cooperated,” he said.

Yap said the police visit surprised him.

“I asked them why and they said they were from the Dang Wangi police station and they wanted to take a statement from me with regards to the protest we had on Wednesday in front of Parliament.

“This is a surprise because they did not inform us,” he said.

Yap said no documents were taken but the police did take down his particulars.

Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Shaharuddin Abdullah confirmed that his officers had visited the office.

“We did not raid the office but went to track down the organisers of the rally.

“We were there to record statements of a few people,” he said.