FOUR directors of Sarawak’s top conservation group, Save Rivers, were questioned and had their statements taken by police yesterday following a report lodged by timber firm Samling chief executive officer Chua Kee Long.

Chua alleged the environmentalists ran a petition that flooded his email inbox.

Save Rivers founder and chairman Peter Kallang and directors Mark Bujang, Thomas Jalong and Caroline Nyurang went to the Miri police headquarters around 10am and exited around 1.30pm.

“I was questioned for two hours,” Kallang said.

The Save Rivers leaders are being investigated under section 504 of the penal code for intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace, and under section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for misusing network facilities or network services to transmit communication deemed as offensive and could cause annoyance to another person.

In his police report, Chua had accused Save Rivers of spamming him at his official email address with 5,700 emails.

The emails were reportedly from environmentalists and conservation groups all over the world demanding Samling drop a defamation suit filed in 2021 against Save Rivers and its board of directors.

Chua alleged in his police report that Save Rivers disrupted proceedings at Miri High Court on May 15. He said the presence of a crowd at the court complex led to the fourth postponement of the proceedings.

“It is disheartening to be wrongfully implicated for something in which we had no involvement. It is a waste of our time and police resources,” Nyurang later told people waiting outside the police headquarters.

The Save Rivers leaders said they are pleased with how the investigation was carried out, with Bujang saying the officers were “courteous”.

“We were equally cooperative in giving our statements,” he said.

The police report by Chua against Save Rivers is the latest legal run-in between the timber firm, one of the six largest in Sarawak, and the environmentalists.

The defamation suit filed by Samling in 2021 was over eight articles published on Save Rivers’ website between June 2020 and March 2021, which the timber company claimed were offensive and false.

The articles alleged illegal logging and a rush to gain sustainable forestry certification.

Save Rivers argued the articles were based on the company’s actual operation practices at the Gerenai forest management unit (FMU), as verified by affected members of the Ulu Baram communities.

The Gerenai FMU was declared sustainable by the Malaysian Timber Certification Council.

In April, 160 groups signed a letter calling this suit a strategic litigation against public participation case, noting that the fine – RM5 million – would bankrupt Save Rivers.

The Forest Stewardship Council, an international organisation that operates a certification scheme for sustainable forestry, also announced Samling would be investigated for alleged violations of the council’s policies. – August 12, 2023.