PKR vice-president and MP for Lembah Pantai Nurul Izzah Anwar has been freed on bail from her one-night detention in the Jinjang police station, following her arrest under the Sedition Act 1948.
KL Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief SAC Zainuddin Ahmad confirmed to AFP that Nurul Izzah was released at 12.30pm today, after spending a night in jail.
“I was kept alone in the lockup last night. Only this morning they questioned me for 20 minutes regarding the speech I made in parliament. I am sure they will charge me for sedition,” Nurul Izzah said when contacted by the AFP.
The speech in question was made as part of the debate on the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s royal address at the start of this year’s Parliament sessions, in which she reiterated her party’s stand against the conviction and incarceration of her father, which she called a “political conspiracy”.
She was arrested at the Dang Wangi police station yesterday afternoon, after appearing there to give a statement on her participation in the #KitaLawan mass rally on March 7.
See In Photos: The #KitaLawan Rally on Coconuts KL
Some 500 of her supporters camped outside the police station last night, mirroring the nightly vigils that accompanied the first few nights of her father, Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s incarceration for sodomy beginning February 10.
Also similar to her father’s case was the reaction of the US government, whose State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki expressed “deep concern” over the sedition investigation and arrest of Nurul Izzah by local authorities.
The Sedition Act has been widely criticised for being abused by Putrajaya in order to crack down on political opposition and silence dissent. Although Prime Minister Najib Razak promised to abolish the law in 2012, at last year’s UMNO General Assembly he reversed his decision and announced that the Federal Government would instead move to reinforce the Sedition Act.
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