Bukit Aman investigating Raja Petra over defamatory articles on A-G
(TMI) – FEDERAL police are investigating the Malaysia Today blog and its editor, Raja Petra Kamarudin, for allegedly publishing articles that have defamed Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali, a top police officer said.
CID director Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd said the case was being investigated under Section 500 of the Penal Code for defamation and under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for improper use of network facilities or network services.
“We have taken over the investigations after reports were lodged (in Kuantan and Putrajaya),” he said in a text message to The Malaysian Insight.
Those convicted under this section are liable to a maximum of two yeara’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.
Wan Ahmad Najmuddin, however, did not say how police were going to question Raja Petra, who is living in exile in Manchester, the United Kingdom.
Raja Petra fled Malaysia in 2006 after being slapped with sedition and criminal defamation charges over a string of articles he published linking Prime Minister Najib Razak and wife, Rosmah Mansor, to the murder of Mongolian model and translator Altantuya Shaariibuu.
TMI is also waiting for comment from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) over its probe into Malaysia Today, which published the articles written by Raja Petra.
Under Section 233 of the MCMC Act, a person found guilty is liable to a maximum RM50,000 fine, a one-year jail sentence, or both.
The reports to the police and MCMC were made following a two-part article by Raja Petra titled “Strong rumours surrounding the AG” published in his Malaysia Today blog on Friday and Sunday.
Among the allegations that Raja Petra levelled against Apandi was that the A-G had demanded RM4 million from a Chinese businessman, identified as a “business partner” of the sultan of Johor, for a case he had won.
Raja Petra also wrote about a purported meeting in 2015 between senior judges – former chief justice Arifin Zakaria, Chief Justice Md Raus Shariff and Court of Appeal president Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin – and a senior politician on an alleged plot to topple the government.
Apandi denied Raja Petra’s allegations of corruption and how he purportedly landed the A-G’s post in the article, adding he would sue Raja Petra “till kingdom come”.
“I am seriously going to sue and am consulting my lawyer friends in the UK. This is nothing but fake news done with evil intention,” Apandi was quoted as saying.
Raja Petra shot back in the second article when he questioned which part of his article was fake.
“Many things were said in that article so Apandi needs to clarify which part is fake if he thinks it is fake,” the blogger said.
