ICJ confirms 'Sultan' cert is fake, says Malacca CM
Noor Jan being whisked out of the Ayer Keroh court complex.
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MALACCA: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has confirmed that a certificate from it recognising Noor Jan Tuah as the Sultan of Malacca is fake, says Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron.
He said the letter was received last September.
“Noor Jan’s claims that he is the Sultan of Malacca are outright lies,” he said yesterday.
Idris had earlier received a letter from Noor Jan claiming that the ICJ had recognised him as Sultan.
Noor Jan was remanded until Saturday to facilitate police investigations under the Sedition Act.
The 56-year-old businessman was later whisked out of the Ayer Keroh court complex into a police van and was believed to be brought to the Melaka Tengah district police headquarters yesterday.
None of his followers or supporters was seen near the complex.
Noor Jan was arrested by plainclothes police officers at the Anjung Batu jetty in Serkam, Jasin on Tuesday, moments before he could board a ferry heading to Pulau Besar with his followers and supporters for a thanksgiving kenduri for the “revival of the Malacca Sultanate”.
About 60 of them were at the jetty but none of them was arrested.
The kenduri reportedly went on without the “Sultan” and the group returned from the island in the evening.
Noor Jan, who was once investigated for cheating back in 2006 in Malacca but was not charged, is now being investigated under Section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act 1948.
Malacca CID chief Asst Comm Raja Shahrom Raja Abdullah advised the self-styled “Sultan’s” followers, including those who had been sponsoring his activities, to surrender themselves to the police to enable a full investigation to be carried out.
He added that the police would also monitor social media platforms on the issue.
ACP Raja Shahrom was responding to some Internet comments which had criticised the arrest as the authorities “were ill-treating a royalty member”.
A post from a Facebook user named Amran Pekida criticised the arrest and called for others to “shake the Malacca police station” on Tuesday night.
A check at a village house that was purportedly used as Noor Jan’s “palace” found that the “Istana Kuning Seri Melaka” in Bukit Punggur, Alai here had been abandoned and unoccupied since 2007.
According to villagers, Noor Jan had initially wanted to rent the house for three years, but only stayed there for about a year.
“He only paid three months’ rent for the house,” said the villager who did not wish to be named.
