Raja Petra arrested and charged

Raja Petra arrested and charged

Raja Petra arriving at the KL police headquarters flanked by his lawyer Armajit Singh Sidhu (right) and friend T. Balakrishnan.

UPDATED 2

KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — Raja Petra Kamarudin reported to the city police headquarters at 9.50am today with his wife Marina and two lawyers.

Police recorded his statement and then arrested him for criminal defamation in relation to a statutory declaration he made on June 18.

He was taken to the Jalan Duta courts where he was charged in a magistrate's court with three counts of defaming the deputy prime minister's wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Acting Colonel Kolonel Abdul Aziz Buyong, and his wife, Norhayati Hassan.

Raja Petra refused to enter a plea, saying "I refuse to respond to a plea on grounds that the charges are both defective and mala fide."

According to one of the two DPPs, Amir Nasruddin, the charges were based on a complaint under Section 131 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

"Basically, what happens if an accused refuses to plead or does not plead or claims to be tried, the court shall proceed to take all such evidence as may be produced in support of prosecution."

Bail was set at RM5,000. Court is now in recess. Magistrate Nazran Mohd Sham will set a date for trial when the sitting resumes.

"This is a bailable offence. I hope he won't surprise me and not post bail," Marina told reporters.

On May 6, Raja Petra, 58, the editor of news portal Malaysia Today, was charged in the Sessions Court with posting a seditious article "Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell" on his news portal.

The article implicated Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in the murder of Altantunya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian woman.

Raja Petra refused to post the RM5,000 bail and was sent to Sungai Buloh prison where he refused to meet anyone, a move which shocked even his wife.

However, on May 9 he changed his mind and decided to post bail as he claimed that his life was in danger if he remained in prison.

This was the fourth time Raja Petra has been investigated by the police under the Sedition Act 1948. The first was in March 2001, followed by November 2004 and July last year.

More recently, on July 5, Raja Petra was questioned for more than two hours at the Sentul police headquarters regarding the statutory declaration where he made various claims linking Najib, Rosmah and others to the murder of Altantuya.