PETALING JAYA (July 16, 2008) : Popular blogger, Malaysia Today editor Raja Raja Petra Kamaruddin is to be charged with criminal defamation in relation to allegations he made in a statutory declaration which implicated Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, wife of deputy premier Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, in the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.
He has been ordered to surrender at the Kuala Lumpur contingent police headquarters at Jalan Hang Tuah at 10am tomorrow.
According to his wife Marina Lee Abdullah, he was was issued a warrant of arrest this morning through his lawyers.
“We spoke to one ACP Aziz at 2pm just now and he confirmed that Petra must report to IPK KL tomorrow,” she told news website Malaysiakini.
July 17,2008 - Petra Kamarudin has been charged with three counts of criminal defamation at the Jalan Duta Magistrate Courts today. The charges were of criminal defamation against the Deputy Prime Minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, C4 expert Acting Colonel Aziz Buyong (then Lt-Col) and his wife Norhayati (one of Rosmah’s aide de camp).
When asked to acknowledged the charges, Raja Petra nodded. But when the magistrate asked how he would plea, Raja Petra said: “I refuse to respond on the grounds that the charges against me are both defective and ‘mala fide’ (in bad faith).
He also told the magistrate that he wanted to sack his lawyer J. Chandra. The court stood down.
Raja Petra, who was arrested earlier today, has been released after the magistrate’s court ruled that the charges filed against him were incomplete and insufficient to proceed with a trial. He will be free until the Attorney General’s Chambers files new charges against him.
