PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian
Judiciary’s website was discovered hacked and defaced on
Thursday night and its homepage substituted with a threat to not
pursue the issue of the Catholic weekly the Herald’s
use of the word “Allah.”
The hacker, using the handle “Brainwash,” defaced the site with a
bright-red headline saying “TakeDown by Brainwash!” and what can
only be described as “creative” use of the English language.
Blazed across the page in huge letters was “Mess with the best, die
like the rest.”
The hacker also wrote: “Allah only restricted to Muslim only. Dont
touch us as we dont touch you. Unless ....”
It was followed by a threatening postscript at the bottom of the
page “To the court, Brain know you postponed it but if you wise
enough then you should drop it.”
The hacker also posted a picture of a woman, bent over
suggestively, apparently “washing” a brain.
Bar Council committee member Edmund Bon has labelled the act as
“unwarranted and unacceptable.”
He said hacking and defacing websites was a criminal offence under
the Computer Crimes Act 1997.
“The comments appear to put undue pressure on the judiciary to
decide the case in a certain way and this should not be tolerated
in a civil society.
“The Bar Council is all for allowing discussions and criticisms
over court decisions so long as they are done in a civil manner.
This threat intends to put pressure on the judiciary and it has
overstepped the freedom of discussion boundaries,” he said when
contacted.
The Herald website has also been hacked three
times after the decision by High Court Justice Lau Bee Lan on
allowing the word “Allah” to be used in the publication’s
Malay-language edition.
Her decision has sparked anger and ire from various Muslim groups.
Some groups have even threatened to stage gatherings on Friday to
protest against the ruling.
The Home Ministry has appealed the decision and has been granted a
stay of execution on Justice Lau’s ruling.
De facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz could not be
reached for comment as at press time.