Malaysian opposition web-site raided

Malaysian opposition web-site raided

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Police have seized computers used to run an opposition Web site suspected of sedition, and a judge rejected a party leader's bid for bail Friday pending investigations that he threatened to overthrow Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

The actions reflect a new crackdown on media critical of the government, led by Asia's longest-serving ruler, and on an opposition that has managed in recent months to step up political demonstrations, some of them in Mahathir's home state.

Police raided the home of Raja Petra Kamaruddin, editor of the opposition National Justice Party's Web site, on Thursday and seized several computers. The editor said that the site would now be operated "offshore."

Police Chief Bakri Zinin was cited by the Sun newspaper as saying that the raid was based on a report by one of his men that an article on the site was seditious.

Because of strict licensing laws which allow the government to ban opposition publications, Malaysia's four-party opposition coalition relies heavily on the Internet to get its message out.

The Internet has been largely exempt from press restrictions because of promises made by Mahathir to information technology investors that the government will not try to restrict Malaysian content.

"The police have made a mockery of the government policy not to censor the Internet," said Raja Petra.

In recent weeks, officials have delayed the distribution of some foreign news magazines and harshly criticized an independent news Web site called Malaysiakini.com.

The magazines, Asiaweek and the Far Eastern Economic Review, have carried stories the government would consider negative, while Malaysiakini is accused of receiving funds from financier George Soros, whom Mahathir blames for causing the 1997 Asian economic crisis. Malaysiakini denies it.

Meanwhile, a judge refused to release Ezam Mohamad Noor, the Justice Party's youth leader, from jail while police investigate him for alleged sedition over comments reported in a newspaper that he vowed to organize demonstrations daily until the government was ousted.

Hours after the ruling, about 500 opposition supporters shouted anti-Mahathir slogans outside a mosque. Riot police, backed by water cannon, looked on but did not intervene. The protesters dispersed.

"Our enemy is Mahathir," Azmin Ali, a Justice Party official, told the crowd. "We will continue to protest against the government abuses."

The crowd shouted "Reformasi!" - the party's cry for reform, dating back to big street demonstrations in 1998 that were led by Anwar Ibrahim after Mahathir fired him as deputy premier. His wife leads the party.

Street demonstrations dwindled during the two-year process when Anwar was tried and convicted of sodomy and corruption and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

But, due partly to Ezam's organizational capabilities, the opposition has managed to muster several thousand people at protests since November, prompting police baton charges and tear- gassings in some cases.

Ezam, who was arrested Tuesday, has denied advocating violence.

Ezam had asked the High Court to quash a lower court's order that he be held in custody, but Judge Abdul Wahab Patail ruled that the police had sufficient reasons to hold him and needed time to determine if his actions had threatened national security.

Ezam accused the newspaper that reported the suspect comments of conspiring with Mahathir's United Malays National Organization to ruin him and threatened to take legal action.

On Friday, Ezam lost a bid to be released from police detention where he is being questioned about allegations he was planning street protests to topple the government.

Ezam was appealing against his detention after a court on Wednesday had given the police until Saturday to investigate the allegations.