The crisis in Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) took another twist after a party leader lodged a police report on Sunday alleging signature forgery in an important party letter.

Thomas Tomi Buren, a member of the party's supreme council, denied the signature was his on a letter with 16 other signatures of SC members who agreed to move the party headquarters to a new address another block away from the old address in Green Heights Commercial Centre near Kuching International Airport.

In the police report, he also said he never saw the letter before.

He was accompanied to the police station by the party's newly-appointed deputy information chief Tedwin Ngumbang, lawyer and deputy youth chief Azizi Murni and another youth leader Edward Kurek.

Earlier, before lodging the report at the Sg Maong police station at Third Mile, Kuching, PRS president and state Land Development Minister Dr James Masing, implied that with the forged signature the letter was therefore invalid and that the Registrar of Societies (ROS) should be notified accordingly.

The ROS in a letter dated May 25 had notified the party of its approval to the change of registered address of the party headquarters.

This means the Masing group's own party headquarters located in Pending at the other end of town is not recognised by the ROS as the registered address, with the obvious implications which are clearly not lost on the party president and his supporters.

The rival faction, led by deputy president Sng Chee Hua, a former elected representative, has insisted that Tomi Buren did sign the letter agreeing to move the office to the new address in Green Heights.

Counter police report

Yesterday, PRS executive secretary Roxanna Ong Yen Yen issued a statement to say Tomi did sign the letter in her presence and several other witnesses in the party office.

She also challenged Tomi to lodge a police report.

When contacted today, Sidi Munan, who still maintains he is secretary-general despite being sacked by Masing, told malaysiakini that Ong would be making a police report.

"We've been waiting for Tomi to make the police report before we make ours against Tomi for making a false police report," he said.

The sudden crisis in PRS erupted after Masing sacked most of the appointed members, including several principal office-bearers, known to be closely aligned to Sng. The move is to secure his position in the supreme council which until then was controlled by his deputy.

When contacted, Sng told malaysiakini that he wanted to refrain from commenting for the time being, but indicated he had not wasted time to defend his rights and position.

It is understood that he had met with some federal leaders before flying to Miri to attend a birthday bash for Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.