BANGKOK — In what lawyers described as a landmark ruling, a court in Malaysia on Friday ordered the release of one of the country’s best known bloggers, ruling that the government acted beyond its authority in invoking a threat to national security.
The blogger, Raja Petra Kamarudin, who was arrested Sept. 12 and detained without trial, was expected to be released later Friday.
Lawyers have long complained that Malaysia’s mildly authoritarian government uses the Internal Security Act as a tool against the opposition. The act allows for indefinite detention without trial.
Mr. Raja Petra, one of the most vocal critics of the current government, was detained for comments posted on his Web site that the government said insulted Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad. He was also accused of posting articles that defamed the country’s leaders and incited hatred against the government.
The court ruled that these were not sufficient grounds for detention under the Internal Security Act. The government can appeal the decision but the judge, Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad, ordered that Mr. Raja Petra be released without delay.
Mr. Raja Petra, 58, has been critical of Najib Razak, the deputy prime minister who is to become prime minister early next year. Among other accusations, Mr. Raja Petra issued a sworn statement that Mr. Najib’s wife was present at the killing of a Mongolian woman who was the mistress of one of Mr. Najib’s aides.
The Internal Security Act is one of more than a dozen laws that opposition politicians and lawyers in the country describe as draconian and anachronistic. When it was introduced in 1960, the government said it would be used to protect people “from communist subversion.”
Tommy Thomas, a prominent Malaysian human rights lawyer, estimates that more than 20,000 people have been detained under the act “for diverse reasons which have nothing to do with communist subversion.”
