Malaysian police were investigating a video threat to attack courthouses by an apparently local pro-Islamic State group, officials said today.

The video, posted Sunday on YouTube, showed four masked men with a Malaysian flag behind them. One sat at a table reading a statement in Malay denouncing the country’s judiciary for being a tool to manipulate democracy.

“Fireworks” would be set off in courthouses late tomorrow in protest, he said. One of the three standing behind him held a bottle with a scrap of cloth in the neck, like a Molotov cocktail.

“We are aware of the video and we are taking it seriously,” Mortadza Nazarene, police criminal investigation chief, told The Star daily.

Authorities pointed to some inconsistencies in the video.

It was posted by a user with the name ISIS Malaysia 69, an apparent reference to one of the acronyms used by the Islamic State group that has declared a caliphate in the Middle East, but made no other reference to it.

The statement appeared to be printed on the back of a photo of Malaysian actress Nora Danish. Her name was not mentioned, and she had contacted authorities to say she was not involved in the video.

At the end of the video, the men chant “fuck democracy” in English, in apparent contradiction of their earlier defence of the system, and give the middle finger to the camera.

One police source told dpa the video appeared to be a hoax, but they were not taking any chances.

“They seem like pranksters to me,” said N Surendran, vice-president of the opposition People’s Justice Party.

The group’s criticism of the court echoed terms used last week by supporters of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, when his conviction for sodomy was upheld by the Federal Court.

The police source told dpa that the video’s authors would be prosecuted regardless of how substantial their threat was, for causing alarm among the public.

- dpa