KL opposition leaders charged

KL opposition leaders charged

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Three more Malaysian opposition activists
were charged on Wednesday with offenses committed during polling
day in a by-election last November which the government lost.

Following Wednesday's hearing, eight charges of wrongful
confinement and nine charges of rioting have been leveled against
opposition activists who allegedly blocked busloads of government
supporters from entering Lunas constituency last Nov. 29.

The opposition says they were "phantom voters" bussed in to
vote fraudulently, a charge which the ruling coalition denies.

The National Justice Party (Keadilan), headed by the wife of
jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, won a shock victory in
Lunas, in the northern state of Kedah, in a bitter blow to Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad's National Front coalition.

On Wednesday Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua; party youth
chief Mohamed Ezam Mohamed Noor; and party state assembly member
Mohamed Azmin were charged with "wrongfully confining" five bus
drivers and two passengers on polling day.