Surat terbuka Zaid Ibrahim kepada PM

Mengenai pengkritik tersohor Kerajaan, Raja Petra Kamarudin pula, semakan ke atas tulisan-tulisannya akan menunjukkan bahawa dia mungkin telah menghina Kerajaan dan individu-individu tertentu di dalam Kerajaan. Bagaimanapun, bersikap kritikal dan menghina tidak boleh dalam apa cara pun dianggap sebagai satu ancaman terhadap keselamatan negara. Jika tulisan-tulisannya dianggap menghina Islam, orang-orang Islam atau Nabi Muhammad (saw), dia sepatutnya didakwa di bawah Kanun Keseksaan dan bukannya ditahan di bawah ISA. . . . baca semua.

Second habeas corpus filed by RPK’s lawyers

Fauwaz Abdul Aziz | Sep 30, 08 4:45pm

Malaysiakini

Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) has filed a second habeas corpus applicati on at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

His wife Marina Lee Abdullah said the legal team had submitted the application today.

“This application is totally different from the first one,” she said when contacted.

“Whereas the first detention order meant he would be detained for up to 60 days, the second said he can be detained in there for life.”

A writ of habeas corpus orders the authorities to produce detainees before a judge to determine whether the government has the right to continue holding them.

The first application filed on Sept 16 was against the popular blogger’s initial detention under Section 73(1) of the ISA, which allows the police to detain a person deemed to be prejudicial to national security for a maximum of 60 days for interrogation.

On the eve of the hearing on Sept 23, however, the Home Ministry signed another order - this time under Section 8 - before packing RPK (left) off the next day to the Kamunting detention camp in Perak.

Section 8 provides for a detention period of two years, renewable upon the minister’s discretion.

Public prosecutors, therefore, had then argued that the application had been rendered moot by the modified section under which Raja Petra was held.

Decision still pending

In his blog posted earlier today, Raja Petra’s lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar noted that the first application to review Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar’s detention order against Raja Petra under Section 73(1) is still pending.

“The judge has to make a decision whether to strike it out for being academic. As we see it, it is not, as the detention order issued by the minister was based on the recommendations of the police,” said Malik.

“The order issued by the minister flowing from the earlier detention by the police, we take the view that the validity of the earlier detention is of relevance to the question of whether RPK is currently being legitimately detained.”

The point will be further argued on Oct 28.

Malik said further that a date has yet to be fixed for the hearing for the second habeas corpus application.

“We expect to know only after Hari Raya,” he said.

Raja Petra, who has become a cause celebre for his scathing attacks against high government leaders, has been detained ostensibly for writing articles that were deemed sensitive to Muslims.

Unanswered Questions?

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ISA terhadap RPK

. . . . untuk lindungi kebobrokan Najib

Posted by kasee

Thursday, 16 October 2008 08:56

[Ed.: earlier photo of RPK & family inside] Anis Nazri, Harakah Penggunaan ISA terhadap pengendali laman blog Malaysia-Today, Raja Petra Kamaruddin dianggap sebagai langkah menyekat 'kemaraan' blogger tersebut mendedahkan lebih banyak lagi kebobrokan pimpinan negara, khususnya berkaitan Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. Isteri Raja Petra, Marina Lee Abdullah, berkata penahanan suaminya itu semata-mata menyekat Raja Petra berterusan menulis mengenai kepincangan Najib, khususnya menjelang peralihan kuasa tahun depan. "Malah, dakwaan yang dikenakan terhadap beliau, sama seperti yang didakwa bawah Akta Hasutan sebelum ini. Kes itu masih dalam perbicaraan, tetapi sudah dikenakan ISA. Sebenarnya, penahanan itu bertujuan menyekat Raja Petra menulis," kata beliau ketika ditemui di kediamannya, di Sungai Buloh, hari ini. Rasa terasing sambut Syawal Kali pertama menyambut Syawal tanpa Raja Petra di sisi, Marina merasai sedikit keterasingan, khususnya untuk mengunjungi rumah terbuka rakan-rakannya kerana kebiasaannya akan ditemani Raja Petra. Cerita Marina lagi, beliau akan berasa sedih apabila bertemu rakan-rakan dan menikmati hidangan istimewa, sedangkan terkenang hidangan yang dinikmati suaminya di Kemta. "Baru-baru ini, akhbar arus perdana menyiarkan kenyataan Menteri Dalam Negeri, Dato' Seri Syed Hamid Albar yang menyatakan Raja Petra diberi makanan istimewa. Makanan istimewa apa? Roti dengan kaya dan margerin, telur dan biskut. Itu yang dia kata istimewa? " soal Marina. Hilang berat lapan kilogram Tambah beliau, sebelum ini Raja Petra mengambil nasi yang disediakan pihak kem. Namun, kali pertama mengambil nasi, Raja Petra mengalami sakit perut dan kemudiannya muntah-muntah apabila mengambil nasi keesokkannya. Selepas itu, kata Marina, suaminya menolak untuk mengambil nasi lagi dan digantikan dengan 'makanan istimewa' yang menyebabkan Raja Petra kehilangan berat badan sebanyak lapan kilogram sepanjang di Kamunting. Sumbangan pembaca Harakah Dalam pada itu, kunjungan Harakah ke kediamannya bertujuan menyampaikan amanah daripada para penyumbang yang terdiri dari pembaca Harakah, khususnya kepada keluarga mangsa ISA. Dalam pertemuan tersebut, wakil Harakah menyampaikan sumbangan RM 1000 kepada Marina sebagai meringankan bebanan perasaan dan sokongan moral kepada mereka sekeluarga. Dalam pada itu, Marina menyeru para penyokong Raja Petra dan mereka yang menentang akta zalim ini ke Mahkamah Tinggi Shah Alam, 22 Oktober ini untuk mendengar keputusan 'harbeas corpus' Raja Petra. more rpk works Foto Wan Zahari Wan Salleh

A Malaysian Murder Trial to Nowhere

Written by Jed Yoong

Monday, 20 October 2008

http://www.asiasentinel.com/ Two years after Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu was murdered, her accusers continue to sit in a courtroom Last Saturday it was exactly two years since a 28-year-old Mongolian translator, Altantuya Shaariibuu was executed and blown up with military explosives in a jungle on the fringe of Kuala Lumpur. And, despite what looked like a routine case in which abundant physical evidence and one confession would be enough for a guilty verdict, the trial of her three accused murderers has been droning on for nearly 18 months. As the trial grinds on as it has for months, the elephant in the courtroom remains the deputy prime minister, Najib Tun Razak, who along with his wife, Rosmah Mansor, has so far escaped questioning or being called as a witness despite two statutory declarations and other evidence linking them to the dead woman. The questions over Najib’s involvement, or lack of it, are growing in urgency because he is now on track to become the country’s prime minister after Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi designated him last month as his successor. The three standing trial are Abdul Razak Baginda, a 48-year-old former advisor and close friend of Najib’s, and two of Najib’s bodyguards, who were part of an elite unit specializing in protecting top political figures. The latest twist is a set of text messages between Najib and Shafee Abdullah, who was represents Razak Baginda, according to an October 11 report on the website Malaysia Today, whose editor, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, currently is standing trial on sedition charges for accusing Najib of being part of the plot to kill Altantuya. In one piece, Raja Petra accused Rosmah of having been present when Altantuya was murdered. She has denied the charge and offered to sue Raja Petra. One message from Shafee to Najib said: "We provided (the police) everything, including old PDAs and notebooks and a couple of bills. Nothing incriminating." Malaysia Today said the exchange raises questions if anything "incriminating" was kept from the police. Malaysia Today also suggested that that the message exchange may indicate that Najib had abused his powers as deputy prime minister to interfere with the investigation. Najib subsequently denied that he had abused his power, told reporters the messages are "private" and refused further comment. "Why do I need to comment? There is no abuse of power," the deputy prime minister told local reporters. ""Why should it be of major concern? The important thing is if there is abuse of power and, if you read it carefully, there is no abuse of power, period." In any case, whatever the new revelations may be, Najib and Rosmah have remained above it all, gracing functions and appearing in feel-good articles in the government-controlled local media, dishing out platitudes on unity, friendship, integrity and economic management. Those who exposed the more gruesome aspects of the trial like Raja Petra Kamarudin, editor of Malaysia Today, and P Balasubramaniam, a private investigator hired by Baginda to keep watch on Altantuya, have come under scrutiny. In addition to the sedition charge, Raja Petra is facing charges of criminal defamation for publishing articles on the murder while Bala has gone into hiding after being pulled into a police station to hurriedly retract a statutory declaration which, among other things, claimed that Baginda told him that Najib introduced Altantuya to him in a diamond exhibition in Hong Kong and that she enjoyed anal sex.

Local bloggers are the most vociferous champions of Altantuya. One wrote a gruesome fictional first-person account of how Altantuya may have experienced the murder.

The local media, on the other hand, have buried stories on the murder trial to the inside pages and commentaries calling for justice are rare.

The usual reason given for editors for shying away from the issue is that it is subjudice although occasionally photographs of Najib holding a machine gun or detonating a bomb, and Rosmah aiming a rifle are published in relation to stories on the Defence Ministry, which Najib also heads.

Najib has been widely reported to have been involved as defense minister in a series of unsavoury purchases of submarines, jet fighter planes and other armaments on which individuals close to him, including Razak Baginda, and the United Malays National Organisation earned vast “commissions.” There is strong circumstantial evidence that Altantuya was the translator on at least one of the series of transactions involving the submarine purchases.

There are other questions over how somehow Abdul Razak was allegedly able to involve Najib’s bodyguards in the murder without Najib’s knowledge. Abdul Razak reportedly spoke with Najib’s chief of staff to ask for someone to “do something” about Altantuya, who was harassing him for money after he attempted to end their affair. One of the two bodyguards confessed to the murder, but the confession was stricken, allegedly because the statement wasn’t cautioned. Numerous amounts of other evidence have been tossed out in the marathon case, raising suspicions that the proceedings are being drawn out to prepare for either acquittals or diminished sentences for the three, perhaps to keep them from pointing the finger at Najib.

Now the former premier, Mahathir Mohamad, has come to Najib's defence. He told The Star on Oct 18, that there is a "concerted effort" to demonise Najib. "“I faced all that before. I was labelled many things and was accused of everything," Mahathir said, referring to the countless allegations levelled against him, including fomenting judicial corruption, since he retired.

http://www.asiasentinel.com/

Najib & Rosmah must not avoid this issue. People form the likes of Asia Sentinel that repeatedly linked Najob & Rosmah to the murder MUST be taken to task and in this case by Najib & Rosmah to court to stop all this nonsense. WE do not want our future PM and his wife to be accused of being a murderer or linked to a murder! Bad enough they were LINKED to corrupt practices! SUE THEM BABY!!!! SUE THEM NOW!!!!

The million ringgit question . . . .

Commentary

OCT 14 - No one has answered the million ringgit question yet: Is the SMS exchange on the Altantuya murder case between Datuk Seri Najib Razak and a prominent lawyer authentic?

If it is not, then it should be put down as yet another move by critics of the government to discredit the man slated to be the next prime minister of Malaysia; dismissed as another desperate attempt to implicate Najib in
the murder of Altantuya Shariibuu.

If it is authentic, then the disclosure raises a whole host of questions. How did private and confidential SMS records of two individuals reach the public domain? Was Najib interested in the case because his advisor Abdul Razak Baginda was a central figure? Was there something sinister or inappropriate in any of the exchanges between Najib and Datuk Shafee Abdullah?

Did Najib use his position as the DPM to interfere in the progress of the murder investigation or did he merely make a few telephone calls to find out the gravity of the situation facing his friend?

Nobody in the government has said anything since the SMS exchange was posted on Malaysia Today, the website owned by Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the blogger who is being detained under the Internal Security Act.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi’s attempt to protect his number two was clumsy.

At a press conference yesterday, a journalist from a local daily broke the monotony of questions on the economy by asking the Prime Minister his thoughts on the SMS. Abdullah, either because he did not catch the question or because he wanted to stay on message and only speak on the economy, ignored the reporter. Later on, he walked up to the reporter and sought a clarification on the question.

The reporter elaborated a bit more on the SMS exchange between Najib and Shafee. The press conference was reconvened and Abdullah defended Najib.

“I can't believe Datuk Seri Najib wants to abuse power. If he's the one who is inclined to abuse power, then how could he be my successor? I believe in him, I believe he's a good person and he would be a good prime minister, “ said Abdullah.

The problem with this stout defence of his deputy is that it does not answer the most important question swirling out there today: Is the SMS exchange between Najib and Shafee authentic?

Continuing silence on this matter will not help Najib or the Abdullah administration. Continued silence on this matter will also create paranoia on the strength of firewalls and security measures of Malaysia’s telcos.

- The Malaysian Insider , see comments