Paulsen released on police bail, maintains tweet was legal

KUALA LUMPUR: Lawyers for Liberty (LfL) executive director Eric Paulsen was released on police bail after being remanded for two days over comments he made about extremism during Friday sermons.

Paulsen was released from the Dang Wangi district police headquarters here at about 4.30pm Wednesday, two days after he was arrested.

“I believe that what I said was within the bounds of the law and what I said was protected by the Federal Constitution’s provisions for freedom of speech. My tweet clearly referred to Jakim as an agency under the PM’s department. I cannot comment further as the matter is currently under police investigation,” Paulsen told The Star when contacted.

He added that the detention was not necessary as plans had already been made and confirmed twice to meet with police over the tweet.

The lawyer added that if the police had wished to speak to him on Monday itself, and wanted him to hand over his phone and computer, all they had to do was call and ask for him to see them.

“The police were professional and treated me well, but I feel the arrest and detention was not necessary because we already had plans to meet with the police on two occasions. I spoke to the police on Sunday and my lawyer Latheefa Koya spoke to the police on Monday to confirm the meeting,” he said.

Paulsen, who is an executive director of LfL, had come under fire over a tweet in which he had called on the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) to stop promoting extremism through its Friday sermons.

On Monday, Paulsen had lodged a police report at the police headquarters here over death threats he received over the tweet.

Paulsen said he had received several threats via Twitter and instant messaging application WhatsApp over the weekend when he was in his office.

Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar then ‏tweeted confirming that Paulsen had been detained in Brickfields late Monday.

Khalid had earlier said Paulsen’s tweet would be investigated under the Sedition Act 1948.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had also urged the authorities to investigate the lawyer’s comments.