BERSIH ACTIVIST WONG CHIN HUAT ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED SEDITION

By ANDREW SAGAYAM

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have arrested activist Wong Chin Huat of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) for alleged sedition, Federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department Director Comm Datuk Koh Hong Sun said.

A police team from the Federal Commercial Crime Investigations Department (CCID) picked up Wong at his home in Seri Sentosa here at 8pm on Tuesday under Section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act 1948.

It is learnt that the police team seized a laptop  and a cellular phone belonging to the university lecturer, political scientist and columnist for The Nut Graph web publication.

Comm Koh, who confirmed the arrest, said Wong was detained to assist in police investigations into allegedly seditious SMSes.

“We will interview him to gather more details and we are checking if the SMSes were initially distributed by him,” he said.

Wong is said to have been brought to the CCID headquarters in Bukit Perdana here.

It is believed that the arrest is linked to a press conference Wong had held earlier Tuesday in which he urged the public to wear black on Thursday to protest the Perak state government takeover by Barisan Nasional.

Newly-appointed Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir is convening the Perak state legislative assembly on that day.