A MAN was detained under the Sedition Act 1948 yesterday to facilitate investigations into threats made on social media against Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.

According to Bukit Aman, the 30-year-old was arrested in Puchong at 11.15pm, and police seized a mobile phone believed to be used to upload the offending material by a Facebook user known as “Apiez Bond”. 

“The man is being remanded for four days until August 23 while the case is being investigated by the Classified Criminal Investigations Department under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948, Section 506 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998,” police said in a statement this evening. 

Social media users had urged police to investigate a Twitter user who purportedly threatened Tengku Maimun and her husband Zamani Ibrahim. 

Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said it is a serious matter and an investigation is being carried out despite the lack of police reports. 

“I’ve instructed the Bukit Aman CID (Criminal Investigation Department) to start the investigation and to scrutinise every form of threat towards the chief justice,” the IGP had said.

Threats against the chief justice were detected on social media platforms after a five-member Federal Court bench rejected former prime minister Najib Razak’s application to adduce new evidence in his final appeal in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case. The bench also rejected a stay application for the hearing. 

Najib is now on his last lap of appeals at the Federal Court to quash his guilty verdict in the SRC International case.

Last year, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s guilty verdict on Najib. 

Tengku Maimun, who was promoted to chief justice in 2019, leads the panel of five hearing the appeal. – August 20, 2022.