Kuala Lumpur: A police officer yesterday told a magistrate's court he was informed by the Malaysian Control Centre in Bukit Aman that there was no curfew enforced in Chow Kit on Aug 7 last year. Deputy Supt Sum Chan Keong said he called the centre after his brother Sum Wei Ming and a classmate, Dr Heng Swee Heong, phoned him at 8pm to ask whether there were riots and a curfew in the Chow Kit area.

DSP Sum, who is with the Commercial Crime Division, said he met CID Director Comm Datuk Yaacob Mohd Amin on Aug 8 about an e-mail message which Yaacob had received through the Internet.

He said that Yaacob gave him a copy of the three-page printout and was instructed to make a report for investigation purposes.

DSP Sum was testifying at the trial of site supervisor Lee Chun Meng, 40, who is charged with spreading rumours through the Internet on July 30, 1998, at Ranhill Worley Sdn Bhd, No. 2-12, Jalan Setiawangsa, Taman Setiawangsa, Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, an offence punishable under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code.

On the message received, DSP Sum said it was about an incident which was forecast to happen between Aug 13-15 involving Indonesians who were unhappy because the Government did not want to renew their work permits.

He added that the e-mail also stated that those who received it should stock up weapons and food and lock their homes at all times.

DSP Sum said the investigating officer in the case, DSP Yee Meng Wah, asked him to gather names and addressess of the e-mail recipients of the same message as Yaacob.

"I managed to get only the names of those who were registered with the local Internet service providers, Jaring and TMnet. The details were given to DSP Yee," he said to a question from prosecuting officer Chief Insp Haniff Hashim.

On Aug 12, he said, he went to Hong Leong Bank and asked its information technology manager, Chin Hui Fong, to make a print-out of the e-mail received by the staff on the same topic.

DSP Sum said that in a few copies printed, there was one name at the end of each e-mail, which belonged to Lee.

He said he also helped in the investigations at another company based on details from Jaring and Computer Systems Advisers (M) Bhd of Petaling Jaya because the e-mail sender, Tan Lai Yee, was an employee of the firm.

Earlier, Magistrate V. Ananth Namasivayam refused to postpone the case on the defence's application saying it was a case of public interest.

He said that witnesses may not be able to remember details if the case was furtherd delayed and ordered Chief Insp Haniff to hand over copies of the cautioned statement and police report as requested by the defence.

Counsel Jagjit Singh and Sharon Kaur appeared for Lee.

Hearing was postponed to July 12 to enable the prosecution to obtain the original e-mail print-out from another court.