Four charged with spreading rumors

Four charged with spreading rumors

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Four people were charged in Malaysian
courts on Thursday with spreading rumors of riots last month on
the Internet, the first cases of their kind in the country, the
official Bernama news agency said.

The charges were not related to political unrest in Malaysia
over the past week during which thousands of protesters took to
the streets of the capital on Sunday and Monday.

But the decision to proceed with the cases now, when the four
have been in custody for six weeks, set off speculation that the
prosecutions might be a warning to dissidents not to use the
Internet to stir up strife in the days ahead.

The three men and one woman were charged with circulating
rumors of riots in the capital Kuala Lumpur, Bernama said.
The rumors on Aug. 7 that Indonesian laborers and locals clashed
in a downtown area of Kuala Lumpur sent panic through the nation.