RPK and his son
If indeed, the government is in anyway implicated in the physical and mental distress of Raja Azman, simply for the sake of getting back at RPK, then it deserves nothing less then the curse of the whole nation upon it.
Suflan Shamsuddin, The Malaysian Insider
Yesterday, Malaysia Today published an article stating that RPK’s lawyers met his son, Raja Azman at Sungai Buloh Hospital. They confirmed that his son, who is currently in remand, had slashed his wrist and swallowed a razor blade. Raja Azman broke down and cried saying that he could no longer stand the physical and mental torture that he was subjected to in jail, and that he wanted ‘out’. And the only way out to him is to end his life.
RPK’s fugitive status arose out of him not making himself available to attend trials relating to charges for criminal defamation and sedition, and the prosecution’s appeal against his ISA release. Having languished in detention twice under wildly draconian and discretionary laws, in both cases subjected to police custody in solitary confinement in locations unknown and in cells no larger than the size of my toilet, never seeing the light of day for days on end, and never knowing where he is, would you not share his sense of impending rough justice, and be tempted to do the same thing, were you to have been in his shoes?
His real major ‘crime’ was to suggest in a Statutory Declaration published in the Internet that there were others involved in the murder of Altantuuya. But in his writings, RPK claims that it was not him that leaked this SD. In fact, his lawyers had handed over the SD to the prosecution team in person and in strict confidence with the hope of convincing them to expand their investigations. However the SD had been leaked by a blogger who disliked RPK, as a result of which RPK was charged for criminal defamation.
Had the leak not happened, RPK would have had considerably less ‘heat’ on his back. He might have found the situation sufficiently manageable and taken his chances in court on the remaining legal matters. He might have remained in KL a free man, having roti canai and teh tarik with his friends, probably bitching about the government, but with his life and that of his family intact.
