A popular anti-government internet blogger has been jailed
in Malaysia
for two years under a draconian security law that can keep him behind bars indefinitely
without a trial, media reports said Tuesday.
Raja Petra Kamarudin, who is known for his sensational
online articles targeting top government leaders, was served with an order
Monday night that would see him detained in for two years under the Internal
Security Act (ISA), the Star daily said.
Raja Petra, who
runs the popular Malaysia Today news website, was arrested September 12 by
order of Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, the Star said.
The minister said some of Raja Petra's articles were deemed a threat to
national security and offensive to Islam, the official religion of the country.
Raja Petra has
in the past been accused by the government of spreading lies and false rumours
in his articles.
He was charged with sedition in May for allegedly implying that Deputy Prime
Minister Najib Razak was involved in the gruesome murder of a Mongolian woman.
Under the ISA, the government can extend his two-year detention period
indefinitely.
Raja Petra will be held at the Kamunting Detention
Center in the northern
state of Perak. The center currently holds other detainees under the security
law, mostly suspected Islamic extremists.
Police also detained an opposition lawmaker and a journalist on September 12,
shortly after Raja Petra was arrested. The government has since released the
two.
The ISA was originally drafted almost 60 years ago during British colonial rule
to fight a communist insurgency.
Critics of the law claim it is being used to crackdown on dissent and have
repeatedly called for it to be abolished, but the government maintains it is
needed to safeguard against terrorism and to ensure national security.
© 2007 - 2009 - DPA/eFluxMedia