Short-lived freedom for youth accused of royal Facebook slur

Ahmad is alleged to have posted a message on Facebook that implied the Sultan was unfit to rule. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 ― The police today rearrested Ahmad Abd Jalil after a Johor magistrate freed him from a three-day remand order for allegedly insulting the state Ruler, allegedly telling the youth’s family that they were acting on orders from “orang atas” (higher-ups), a family member has said.

Ahmad, who was detained last Friday for a sedition probe over his alleged Facebook insult against the Johor Sultan, was immediately taken away by police after he was uncuffed in court this evening, despite protests from his lawyers and family.

“Legally, Ahmad has been FREED by d magistrate. But d POLIS wants 2take him back to IPK. We are insisting that Ahmad follow us. Police still...?” said Ahmad’s father Abd Jalil Abd Rahman in a text message to The Malaysian Insider at around 4.30pm today.

IPK refers to “ibu pejabat polis kontinjen” or the Johor police contingent headquarters, where the 27-year-old Ahmad has been held for the past few days.

In his next text message at 5.25pm, Abd Jalil said, “Majestret dah LEPAS Ahmad tapi inspector Nazri dan 2 anggota tak pakai uniform dah bawa balik Ahmad ke IPK. Sekarang dia ‘under arrest’ dgn charge lain pula (Multimedia Act).”

[Translation: The magistrate has freed Ahmad but inspector Nazri and two plainclothes police officers have brought Ahmad back to the Johor police contingent headquarters. Now, he is ‘under arrest’ for a different charge (Multimedia Act).]

In a phone call to The Malaysian Insider later, another family member of Ahmad’s who declined to be named alleged that the police have admitted that they were keeping the youth in their custody due to orders from above.

“Ahmad was released because the magistrate said they failed to get statement from him in the three days they held him.

“They opened his cuffs but then did not release him... saying that this is an instruction from ‘orang atas’. So tomorrow, they will bring him again to the court to seek another remand order.

“Who is this ‘orang atas’?” the family member said.

According to Ahmad’s lawyer on Saturday, the police had informed the youth that he was being investigated under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948 over a Facebook post that allegedly insulted the Johor Sultan.

English daily The Star had today quoted acting Johor CID chief ACP Abd Aziz Ahmad as saying in a statement that the posts were published on October 21 and had implied that Sultan Ibrahim was unfit to be the state ruler.

According to the news report, Ahmad is also being investigated under the Communications and Multimedia Act.

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