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Malaysian blogger jailed for 2 years

By John Hirst

Malaysian blogger jailed for 2 years

"Malaysia jailed a prominent anti-government blogger for two years under a strict security law that can keep him in prison indefinitely for allegedly inciting racial tensions with his writings, a lawyer said today.

Online commentator Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin was already in police custody and was served a detention order last night under the Internal Security Act, said his lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.

"He was taken this morning to Kamunting (Detention Center)," Malik said. "This is definitely a big blow to the idea of civil liberties, especially in a climate when everybody is asking for greater rights."

The order was signed by Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who has said Raja Petra's writings on Islam pose a threat to national security by creating racial tension.

The minister has the final word on how long a person stays in jail under the act, and courts can only review the procedure of the detention but not the detention itself"...

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on September 23, 2008 (boomark / email).