IGP: Paulsen’s arrest to safeguard harmony

KUALA LUMPUR: The arrest of Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen was made to safeguard the nation’s well-being and harmony enjoyed by people of diverse races and religions, said Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.

“It has to be done to defend and preserve the freedom of the rakyat to live peacefully without being influenced by any party with a hidden agenda,” said the Inspector-General of Police in a press statement yesterday.

Khalid also warned certain parties not to politicise or manipulate Paulsen’s arrest as it could impact the country’s security.

The Kuala Lumpur magistrate’s court had earlier granted a two-day remand order for Paulsen following his arrest on Monday night.

It is learnt that Paulsen was represented by seven lawyers, including Latheefa Koya and N. Surendran.

Via his twitter handle @KBAB51 recently, Khalid tweeted that Paulsen was arrogant and thought that he would be able to influence Malaysians to forsake the spirit of 1Malaysia.

Paulsen was arrested over his tweet which allegedly accused the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) of promoting extremism.

He was detained in Brickfields by the police at about 9.40pm on Monday, according to a tweet by the IGP shortly after the arrest.

Paulsen had earlier lodged a report at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters, saying that he received death threats via Twitter and WhatsApp over the weekend.

In Ipoh, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Islamic affairs) Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said texts for the Friday sermons were prepared by Jakim and religious departments of the respective states.

He said the sermons were also uploaded on Jakim’s portal.

“The sermons and Friday prayers are a must. This is part of Islam. So the person accusing Jakim of promoting extremism must come up with proof and facts first.

“We will leave it to the police to carry out their investigations, since the arrest has been made,” he said.