Johor Police to ‘tell all’ on Uncle Seekers arrest

(Malaysian Digest) –  Johor police are set to issue an official statement to explain the arrest of paranormal activities expert Syed Abdullah Syed Hussain Al-Attas, better known as ‘Uncle Seekers’ and his girlfriend.

Johor police chief Datuk Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff (above) told Malaysian Digest that he has instructed state criminal investigation department (CID) director Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan to release a statement on the matter.

“I don’t want to make any comments. I have already told the CID to issue a press statement on this case. So just wait for the statement,” he said, declining further comment.

Mohd Mokhtar was asked on the reason behind Syed Abdullah’s arrest. There have been conflicting reports which claimed that Syed Abdullah, 46, was detained on suspicion of sedition, as well as drug abuse.

He also declined comment when asked on the status of investigation.

Last week, Johor police had detained Syed Abdullah, who also runs a blog www.uncleseekers.blogspot.com following the posting of several allegedly seditious articles on the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar and the state’s royal family.

More than 30 police reports were subsequently lodged in Johor against him. Blog statistics had showed that the blog was incepted in 2008, and had generated around 10 million hits. There were also 64 articles allegedly involving members of Johor royalty.

Syed Abdullah was arrested in Senawang, Negeri Sembilan and later brought to the Nusajaya police district headquarters in Johor for questioning. A remand order was subsequently obtained on him.

Following his arrest, police later confirmed that Syed Abdullah had tested positive for heroin. Conflicting reports have claimed that he tested positive for morphine.

Syed Abdullah is best known for his work on the television series, Seekers, which ran for eight seasons on NTV7. The show featured Syed Abdullah as the host who leads a team of paranormal explorers as they investigate real-life occult reports around the country.

A controversial figure, Syed Abdullah was in 2010 sued by Tuanku Permaisuri Siti Aishah Abdul Rahman, who was the was the consort of the 11th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, Sultan Salahudin Abdul Aziz Shah. Syed Abdullah was alleged to have leaked personal information pertaining to her.

In an interview with Malaysian Digest following Syed Abdullah’s arrest, his father, political writer Syed Hussein Al-Attas had raised questions on why his son was taken to Johor after being arrested in Negri Sembilan.

In that interview, he had hinted that the authorities would slap his son with additional charges unrelated to sedition, such as drugs.