Human rights lawyer and Lawyers for Liberty co-founder Eric Paulsen was arrested yesterday over his tweets criticising the Kelantan state government’s push for hudud law.
Paulsen’s lawyer, Melissa Sasidaran said police arrived at the Art for Grabs event in Dataran Merdeka Underground at 4.50pm yesterday evening and confiscated his mobile phone.
He was then taken to the Dang Wangi police station for questioning.
Sasidaran told The Malaysian Insider, “He is arrested for violating the Sedition Act but details are sketchy.”
After he gave his statements to the police, he was kept in detention overnight. He is scheduled to be released from custody at 6m today.
In his tweets, Paulsen contended that hudud law, which in Kelantan’s interpretation allowed for amputation as punishment for theft, and the death penalty for apostasy from Islam, had no place in modern society. He went on to describe hudud as a “word to show injustice especially to girls and women”.
He also tweeted his skepticism that the Islamic laws would be enforced smoothly in Malaysia.
Paulsen was previously arrested on January 12, after he tweeted an accusation that the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) was spreading extremism to Malaysian Muslims through Friday sermons.
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