PSM secretary-general S. Arutchelvan is among several opposition leaders to be investigated by police for their criticism of the sodomy verdict involving Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 19, 2015.
Police today arrested Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) secretary-general S. Arutchelvan, the latest opposition figure to be hauled up for allegedly criticising the Federal Court's decision to uphold Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy conviction and jail sentence.
PSM national chairman Dr Nasir Hashim, confirming the arrest, said Arutchelvan was taken to the Dang Wangi police station, and was being investigated under the Sedition Act.
Earlier, Arutchelvan said police were waiting outside his home in Kuala Lumpur.
"I will be arrested in a while," he said when contacted this evening.
"They also said they wanted to confiscate a few things but I haven't let them into the house as I am alone."
The PSM stalwart had apparently claimed that the apex court's verdict was politically motivated.
Last week, inspector-general of police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, warned that Arutchelvan along with several other opposition figures would be investigated for criticising the court's decision.
Besides Arutchelvan, Khalid also named Fariz Musa, the head of PKR's Jingga-13 movement and PKR deputy youth chief Dr Afif Bahardin, both of whom had allegedly urged Anwar's supporters to hold demonstrations.
On February 11, popular cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar UlHaque, or Zunar, was arrested for sedition over his tweet criticising the judiciary, hours after Khalid went on Twitter to warn of police action.
Khalid had also singled out two opposition politicians, DAP's Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming and PKR's Pandan MPRafizi Ramli, over their tweets allegedly critical of the Anwar verdict.
Nga had posted: "Rakyat berdoa untuk DS Anwar tetapi tidak kesampaian. Sudah tiba masa rakyat menentang rejim yang zalim." (The people prayed for DS Anwar but it never came to pass. It is time that the people oppose the cruel regime).
Rafizi, meanwhile, had posted a picture of a judge in a black robe and white wig that had dollar signs on it, believed to be referring to the opposition's claims that the prosecution against Anwar was politically motivated by Putrajaya.
The latest onslaught on opposition leaders under the Sedition Act followed the Federal Court's guilty verdict on Anwar, who was charged of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at a condominium unit at Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, on June 26, 2008.
- TMI
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