Two months after issuing malaysiakini an eviction order , landlord PC Suria has decided to allow the news portal to remain in its rented office for another two years.

This follows the rejection of an earlier offer by PC that it was willing to extend its tenancy agreement with malaysiakini but with a 15 percent hike in rental.

Malaysiakini

chief executive officer Premesh Chandran had told PC Suria that the offer was unacceptable since the o­nline website had a two-year tenancy agreement based o­n the existing rental rate.

The landlords then had a change of mind and in a letter dated yesterday, PC Suria managing director Orissa Baharum said the company's board of directors had decided to allow malaysiakini to stay for a further two years at the current rental rate.

"We welcome PC Suria's decision," said Premesh. "The decision has vindicated our stand - that the eviction order was illegal."

Premesh said malaysiakini will continue its operation in the Bangsar Utama office.

Police raid

On Jan 21, PC Suria ordered malaysiakini to vacate its rented premise in Bangsar Utama, a suburb in Kuala Lumpur, for having committed "activities which contravene the laws of the country" - a day after the controversial police raid o­n the news website's office.

The o­nline daily was given until Feb 28 to vacate its premises.

Malaysiakini

said that the eviction order was 'unlawful' since it had recently renewed a two-year tenancy agreement with PC Suria.

The news website had vowed to stay put, and there was a tense two-month standoff between the two contending parties.

Early this month, in a major reversal, PC Suria informed malaysiakini that it was willing to continue the tenancy agreement. However, the landlord demanded a hefty increase in rental, which was immediately rejected by malaysiakini .

PC Suria is the sole distributor of computer products produced by Perbadanan Komputer Nasional Bhd (Nascom), a government-backed enterprise.

Police to keep two servers

Meanwhile, the police have informed malaysiakini that they intended to hold two key servers until their investigation is over.

In a letter signed by Dang Wangi's Criminal Investigation Department Wan Ahmad Wan Abad, the police said it had returned two of the four remaining servers to malaysiakini o­n March 18.

According to Premesh, there was no reason for the police to continue holding o­n to the two servers.

He said malaysiakini will take legal action to seek the release of the two servers.

The servers were among the 19 computers confiscated by the police o­n Jan 20 as part of an investigation under the Sedition Act.

The raid was in response to a police report lodged by Umno Youth over a letter published in the website which was said to be seditious because it allegedly questioned the special rights and privileges accorded to the Malays.

Previously, 15 other computers have been returned to malaysiakini in stages. The police have yet to file any charges against the o­nline website.