Late night arrest over Altantunya blog posting

REMBAU: Fifteen policemen swooped in and arrested PKR supreme council member Badrul Hisham Shaharin last night over a posting in his blog in relation to the mysterious murder of Mongolian Altantunya Shaariibuu in 2006.

It was understood that Badrul Hisham, who is also popularly known as CheGu Bard, was about to convene his Rembau division meeting when he was arrested at 9pm last night.

He was immediately taken to the police headquarters in Seremban for questioning.

Meanwhile, his house in Bukit Chedang in Seremban was also ransacked by police.

He was released at midnight on bail after police took down his statement.

It was learnt that police detained Badrul Hisham over the content of his blog posting and ceramah regarding the murder of Altantuya.

Badrul Hisham, who is also the author of “DiSebalik Misteri Pembunuhan Altantunya”, is being investigated under the Sedition Act.

Late last month, he had in his posting openly wondered if Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had been “coerced” by Singapore’s secret service into agreeing to the Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) land swap deal.

He had speculated that the Singapore’s secret service may have used photographs of Altantuya with Najib to threaten the premier into sealing a lopsided deal over the KTMB Tanjung Pagar issue.

Badrul Hisham said his suspicions were based on private investigator P Balasubramaniam’s statutory declaration on July 1, 2008, in which he stated that Najib was introduced to Altantunya, who was also known as “Aminah”, by his political adviser Abdul Razak Baginda at a diamond exhibition in Singapore.

'I didn't insult royalty'

Meanwhile, a source close to him said Badrul Hisham had not discounted the possibility that the arrest was instigated by a relative of Negri Sembilan Menteri Besar Mohamad Hasan, who is also an Umno Youth member, over another earlier blog posting titled “Warkah Terbuka Kepada DYMM Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Di Pertuan Agong :'hepi besday, sir!”

The posting on June 10 touched on the roles and responsibility of the royal institution towards the rakyat.

Meanwhile, when met by FMT after he was released, CheguBard denied that he has insulted the royalty.

"There is no such thing that I insulted the King and the Sultan of Johor. I have the highest respect for the Malay rulers. The article I wrote had nothing to do with the rulers,” he said.

He accused Umno of “purposely manipulating the article to exact political revenge on me as I have been very critical of Negri Sembilan Umno and its chief (Mohamad)”.
"I also believe this action against me is possibly due to political pressure from the Umno leadership relating to my visit to Indonesia recently,” he said.

CheguBard added that he was in Jakarta to attend a forum to discuss the content of his book “DiSebalik Misteri Pembunuhan Altantunya”. He was also there to attend a meeting of the Youth Non-Government Organisation of Indonesia and the Southeast Asia Youth round table conference.
He returned home yesterday.

“Anyway, I gave my fullest cooperation to the police and I'm aware they are just doing their duty,” he said.

FMT
10/07/10

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