Malaysia halts sedition trial of anti-government blogger
Raja Petra, 59, has infuriated authorities for years by publishing numerous claims of alleged wrongdoing by government leaders. The government has denounced Raja Petra’s allegations as lies.
Gulf News
A Malaysian court on Wednesday temporarily halted the trial of a prominent anti-government blogger accused of sedition because authorities could not track him down.
Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin went into hiding in April, nearly a year after he was charged with sedition over an article he wrote that allegedly implied the prime minister was involved in the murder of a Mongolian woman.
Sessions Court Judge Rozina Ayub granted Raja Petra a “discharge not amounting to acquittal,” which means the charge has not been formally withdrawn and he can be re-arrested later, said Raja Petra’s lawyer, Jadadish Chandra.
Raja Petra, who runs a popular news Web site called “Malaysia Today,” is believed to have fled abroad. He insisted Wednesday he would not resurface, saying he still believes authorities are determined to put him behind bars.
“I think I’ll continue from where I am in my attempts to bring down the government,” Raja Petra told AP by the Web telephone service Skype from an unknown location.
Rozina told lawyers that the trial could not proceed because police had failed to locate Raja Petra, Chandra said. Government prosecutors had questioned seven witnesses following the trial’s start in October 2008.
Raja Petra, 59, has infuriated authorities for years by publishing numerous claims of alleged wrongdoing by government leaders. The government has denounced Raja Petra’s allegations as lies.
The sedition trial stems from an article written by Raja Petra that allegedly implied Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife were involved in the 2006 killing in Malaysia of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian interpreter who had an affair with Najib’s close friend. Both have denied involvement. Two policemen were sentenced to death in April for her murder, though the trial never established what their motive was.
If convicted of sedition, Raja Petra had faced up to three years in prison.
Some of Malaysia’s most popular blogs offer strong anti-government commentaries and present themselves as a substitute for mainstream media, which are controlled by political parties in the ruling coalition or closely linked to them.
