Najib Govt's Reign of Terror : Badrul Hisham aka Chegubard Arrested by Police

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PKR supreme council member Badrul Hisham Shaharin has been detained by police for allegedly posting a seditious remark on his blog regarding the Yang DiPertuan Agong and the royal institution.

Badrul Hisham, popularly known as Chegubard was arrested between 8.30pm and 9pm last night at the state PKR headquarters in Rahang to facilitate investigations over the posting on chegubard.blogspot.com, which was made last month.

Negeri Sembilan PKR secretary Sabaruddin Mohd Yassin said Badrul Hisham, more popularly known as Chegubard, was reported to have been called out of the meeting he was attending at 9pm by about 15 police officers and taken away for questioning.

According to the police, Badrul Hisham was questioned on blog postings relating to seditious remarks involving the king and the royal institution. The police also conducted a search of his house.

"I'm not sure what they were looking for, but they did not take anything. They however took a few photos of my work area," he told Malaysiakini.

"He was arrested because the police had received complaints from the public that he had allegedly posted seditious remarks on the king and the royal institution," he said.

Osman added that Badrul Amin was cooperative when giving his statements, and that the police will continue to investigate the claims.

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." .

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.

Badrul Hisham was released under police bail at about 11.30pm.

Badrul Hisham contested the Rembau parliamentary seat in the 2008 general elections but lost to Khairy Jamaluddin, now Umno Youth chief.