The release of the material would depend on the pastor involved proving that he had a scheduled flight to Sabah.

KUALA LUMPUR: Religious items including CDs seized last Sat at KLIA2 from a Christian pastor on the way home to Sabah from Medan, Northern Sumatra, will be released if certain conditions are met.

We are trying to ascertain if he was bringing it to Semenanjung or taking it to Sabah and if hes on transit, why was it (the material) in the main terminal? asked Hashimah Nik Jaafar who heads the Home Ministrys Publications Control and Al-Quran Text Unit. We are trying to get verification from Customs and the person involved.

She was stressing in a media update that the Home Ministry doesnt confiscate Christian material if they are meant for Sabah and Sarawak. So we have to determine whether these books and CDs were really meant for Sabah and Sarawak or they were being brought into the peninsula, she added.

She explained that the procedures for import of Christian material into the peninsula and Borneo were different.

In the case of Borneo, theres no need to seek written approval from the Home Ministry.

For the peninsula, importers of such material would have to seek written approval from the Home Ministry. However, no such approval would be given. Instead, the Home Ministry would write back to say that a certain number of the materials can be brought in.

Revisiting the seizure last Sat, Hashimah belaboured the point that the release of the material would depend on the pastor involved proving that he had a scheduled flight to Sabah.

If the person was really taking the material to Sabah, he has to produce his air ticket. We would release the material to him when he was leaving KLIA, she claimed.

Maklin Masiau, the pastor at the centre of the storm, wrote in a FaceBook posting: Even though I pleaded with them not to seize my things with all kinds of concrete reasons, they were steadfast in seizing them. Their main reason for the seizure was that the books and the CDs contained the word Allah.

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Red faced Home Ministry explains seizure