KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 ― Malaysians should be wary of what they post online as lies and untruths cannot be so easily forgiven especially during the holy month of Ramadan, a federal minister said today.

Using the controversy surrounding 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) as an example, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom claimed that many lies and “untruths” have been spread online against the state investment fund.

“It takes two people to use their tongues to (tell lies) but keyboard warriors, WhatsApp users can do it by themselves even at two or three in the morning,” he said in his speech during an event at the Hospital Angkatan Tentera Tuanku Mizan.

“Things that are untrue have been said about 1MDB… and now that Xavier Justo guy has been arrested now they (keyboard warriors) want to stop,” the minister in charge of religious affairs added.

“When you do wrong you will receive your just sentence.

“Sins of the tongue may be forgivable, but what you write online on the internet is there until the end of time...so it won't be easy to apologise to the whole world (if you have lied),” Jamil Khir said.

Former PetroSaudi International (PSI) director Xavier Justo has been accused of doctoring data on the company's now-aborted deal with 1MDB, as well as allegedly attempting to extort 2.5 million Swiss francs (about RM10 million) from PetroSaudi over the release of the purportedly incriminating documents.

Umno-linked daily New Straits Times reported last Tuesday an anonymous source from cyber security firm Protection Group International as saying that the leaked documents on the deal between PetroSaudi and the state investment firm had been doctored.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has also said after receiving a report on the arrest from their Thai counterparts that included forensic analysis of the leaked data, the Malaysian authorities concluded that the documents had been tampered with in a bid to tarnish the joint venture.

But Sarawak Report, the whistleblower site that published much of the leaked data about the deal, dismissed claims that it had received tampered documents and alleged that Justo's arrest was part of a high-level conspiracy aimed at clearing the Najib administration.

Sarawak Report chief editor Clare Rewcastle has also noted that neither Zahid nor the NST have produced any evidence to support claims that the leaked documents were doctored.

1MDB is the brainchild of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who has been facing calls for his early resignation over the numerous controversies surrounding the firm’s allegedly opaque deals.