Anwar lawyer arrested in suspected crackdown
Anwar lawyer arrested in suspected crackdown
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysian police on Wednesday arrested the lawyer of jailed finance minister Anwar Ibrahim and three others on charges of sedition in an apparent crackdown on the opposition following bitterly contested elections.
The arrests, which hit each of the three main opposition parties, drew swift condemnation from critics of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who earlier in the day left the country on a two-week holiday.
Karpal Singh, an outspoken opposition politician and prominent lawyer defending Anwar in his high-profile sex trial, was arrested on a sedition charge and brought to a police station in the capital, police said.
Police declined to elaborate on the charge against Karpal, who is a leader of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) but lost his seat in parliament in November's snap elections. Karpal was still at the police station on Wednesday evening.
Marina Yusoff of Parti Keadilan Nasional (National Justice Party) was accused of inciting racial hatred in remarks made before general elections in November, the opposition party said in a statement. Her remarks related to violent race riots that erupted in 1969.
The editor of the newspaper run by the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) told Reuters both he and the holder of the newspaper's publishing permit were arrested separately on charges of sedition over an August 1999 article on the judiciary.
Opposition leaders denounced the arrests, which they said could mark the start of a campaign to stifle criticism of Mahathir's coalition and governing authorities.
"Apparently a policy decision has been taken for a crackdown," DAP national chairman Lim Kit Siang told Reuters. "This is not the way to heal the nation after the elections as it only deepens the wounds and has far-reaching repercussions for nation-building in years to come."
Lim Kit Siang's son, Lim Guan Eng, was released from jail in August after serving a year for sedition.
Keadilan vice president Tian Chua said: "It looks like the persecution is on. I think they will go for a new round of attacks on the opposition. I am not optimistic."
More than 100 opposition figures were arrested in 1987 in a sweep code-named Operation Lalang, many under the Internal Security Act which allows indefinite detention without trial.
Zulkifli Sulong, editor of PAS's Harakah newspaper, said he was arrested on charges of sedition in a police station in the capital and that he would plead not guilty when he appears in Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on Thursday at 9 a.m. (8 a.m. Jakarta time).
He said the executive who holds Harakah's printing permit was also arrested on the same charge. Zulkifli said under the Sedition Act, a publication's permit can be suspended for up to a year. "I am worried about this because of my newspaper," he said.
The government recently ordered Harakah, whose publishing license says it can sell only to PAS members, to stop distributing to non-members. Harakah's circulation soared during the election campaign last year.
Asia's longest-serving elected leader, Mahathir has been in power since 1981 and won an unprecedented fifth mandate in November's polls when his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition took three quarters of the seats in parliament.
Mahathir's supporters credit him with modernizing Malaysia. But his critics, foremost among them Anwar, say his government has curbed civil liberties.
Anwar's sacking in 1998 and subsequent arrest galvanized the disparate opposition, which in the recent polls made deep inroads into Mahathir's United Malays National Organization's base in the Moslem Malay electorate.