An Umno Youth leader said yesterday that the police, and not the movement, should be held responsible for carrying out a widely criticised raid o­n malaysiakini last month, during which 15 computers and four servers were seized.

Umno Youth exco member Nur Jazlan Mohamed said the movement had lodged a police report against malaysiakini because it felt that the o­nline daily had committed an offence under the Sedition Act but added that Umno Youth had no say in the actions of the police after lodging the report.

"Umno Youth felt that malaysiakini went too far and so (we) lodged a police report. After that it is no longer our responsibility. [The raid] is not Umno Youth's fault but the police," he said, while speaking as a panellist at a forum o­n inter-ethnic relations in Kuala Lumpur.

On Jan 20, the police raided malaysiakini's office in response to the report lodged by Umno Youth, which claimed that a letter published o­n the website was seditious as it questioned the special rights accorded to the Malays, a charge denied by malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan.