Malaysian Blogger Raja Petra Released

(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Jailed in September for writing articles that allegedly insulted Islam, Raja Petra has now been released from custody after a court ruled that he was detained without proper authorization.

His lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar said the Shah Alam High Court on Friday ordered the blogger to be produced at a hearing at 0800 GMT and immediately released.

Malik said the court ruled that Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar had acted outside his powers by ordering Raja Petra to serve two years in detention without trial.

"The judge ruled that under the circumstances which existed at the time that Raja Petra was detained did not satisfy the threshold conditions under the ISA," he told AFP.

"The judge said the minister had acted without proper power," he said.

I presume that the government will try to find another way to prosecute Raja Petra. His writings have linked the murder of a Mongolian woman to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.

It's worth mentioning that the crime of insulting Islam appears to be a catch-all charge used when the authorities don't like what you're doing but don't have any actual evidence of criminal behavior.

Previous:

8/14/08 - Blogger Ordered to Remove Content, Identify Sources

5/06/08 - Malaysian Blogger Charged with Sedition