Police raided the home of popular blogger Chan Lilian in Penang and carted away her 27-inch iMac and a modem as part of their investigation over a tweet message she sent last month.
Chan, a videographer, is being probed under section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act over her tweet message, as well as section 27 (5) of the Police Act for allegedly participating in the July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally in Kuala Lumpur.
If convicted, Chan faces a fine not exceeding RM5,000 or a jail term up to three years, or both.
Yesterday, four police officers from Brickfields cyber crime unit questioned Chan for about an hour at the Jalan Pattani (northeast district) police headquarters in Penang.
Later, they went to her house in Tanjung Bungah and spent two hours searching for "evidence".
They also combed through eight files on her computer, took snapshots of her Twitter account and drew a diagram of her working area.
The police team, which was led by investigating officer ASP Ridzuan Ibrahim, left at about 8.30pm with Chan's computer and modem.
When asked by journalists about the seizure of Chan's prized iMac, Ridzuan replied "No comment!" before slipping into the police car.
Chan was accompanied by lawyer Tham Shien Shyong during her three-hour ordeal.
"This is the price I have to
pay for expressing my thoughts," a calm Chan told reporters later outside her home.
"I maintain that I have no intention of inciting anyone - my tweet is restricted (to 900 members) but its privacy has been abused," added the mother of four.
Chan, who is a temporary staff in the Penang government, vowed that she would not give up tweeting as she has the right to freedom of expression.
"It is regrettable that this has happened. I tweeted as an individual and a blogger, and this has nothing to do with where I work (and my employer)," she said.
900 members in Twitter account
On the night of June 29, 10 days before the Bersih rally, Chan had sent out a tweet suggesting that all Christians march to protest their "persecution".
"I think all Christians shud march for all the persecution they had done to us and our Lord. Don't you think so? I go sleep now, bye-bye. :)," said her tweet.
This resulted in a police report lodged against her by Blog House secretary Tony Yew.
In his report, Yew alleged that Chan's tweet contained seditious elements, which directly incited Christians to go against the government.
Yew, who was one of Chan's 900 members in her Twitter account, said that as a Christian, he believed that the tweet message has "the ability to threaten the security of the nation".
He had also wrote in his blog that Chan's tweet was being retweeted and he was disappointed there were people out there happy to spread the word.
Chan, who was previously a Malaysiakini citizen journalist, said her Twitter account was restricted to her followers, but she had added Yew as a member unknowingly.
According to Chan, she did not made any reference to Bersih 2.0 or the government in her tweet where she "thought" that Christians should march.
She said she did not promote Bersih 2.0, neither did she attend the event nor had she used a yellow badge which symbolises support for the outlawed coalition on her Twitter avatar. - Malaysiakini
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