Counsel for Raja Petra will file a habeas corpus application next week against the detention order.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin was detained for two years under the Internal Security Act yesterday for writing articles considered to have maligned Islam, and being malicious and seditious.
He was sent from Bukit Aman police headquarters, where he had been held since Sept 12, to the Kamunting detention centre in Perak around 11am.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar signed the detention order under Section 8(1) of the ISA on Monday evening on a recommendation by police.
Syed Hamid said the ministry would review the detention order at the end of the first three months and again after six months.
Raja Petra's lead counsel, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, said he would file a habeas corpus application next week against the new detention order.
Syed Hamid said there was strong evidence supporting action to invoke the ISA against Raja Petra.
He said the decision was made after police investigations into articles posted by the blogger on his website showed that they could incite racial and religious tension and disrupt peace in the country.
"The police gave their recommendation and provided strong basis for him to be detained under ISA. It is their right to recommend to the Home Minister to sign the two-year detention order if they found strong proof and reason.
"If they (the articles) are proven to be threatening as well as causing uneasiness among Muslims and members of the public, then it is proof," he said.
On the fact that he had signed the order as Raja Petra's habeas corpus application on his earlier detention under Section 73(1) of the ISA was scheduled to be heard in the High Court yesterday, he said they were not related.
"That is Raja Petra's right and is a totally different issue."
In the High Court, Raja Petra's application came to a halt with judge Suraya Othman saying that it had been overtaken by events.
She fixed Oct 28 to hear submissions by Malik and Senior Federal Counsel Abdul Wahab Mohamad on the order issued by Syed Hamid.
Malik told the court that he was only informed yesterday morning by Wahab that his client had been detained under Section 8 (1).
"I was not informed of my client's detention despite the police having my contact numbers," said Malik.
To this, Wahab said he himself had been told of the order at the same time.
Malik replied that he was surprised that Wahab "was well-prepared with written submissions for someone who said that he was only informed about it this morning".
He submitted that the detention order issued by the minister on Monday night was done to avoid the consequences of the habeas corpus hearing.
"Raja Petra's detention under Section 73(1) of the Act was done without basis, unconstitutional and was done in bad faith," he said.
He said Syed Hamid's order "could only have been the result of the inquiry by the police".
"Because they are inter-related, the question whether the earlier detention was lawful or not is a matter which is relevant for argument of the current order," he added.
Suraya was herself surprised by Raja Petra's two-year detention order, saying: "I had not expected a lot of matters to be overtaken by events."
She said Syed Hamid's order superseded the previous order under Section 73 (1).
Earlier, Wahab, submitting that the habeas corpus application should be dismissed, contended that since Raja Petra was no longer detained under Section 73 (1), and that the new detention order had come into operation, all issues pertaining to his earlier detention were academic.
Alang Bendahara, Sushma Veera and Alina Simon
NST online
24/09/08
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