Chegubard remanded for 2 days, says lawyer

Badrul Hisham Shaharin, also known as Chegubard, was arrested yesterday over a posting on a Bloomberg report of the alleged talks on opening a casino in Forest City, Johor.

PETALING JAYA: Bersatu activist Badrul Hisham Shaharin, who was arrested yesterday evening to facilitate an investigation under the Sedition Act, will be remanded for two days, his lawyer said.

Rafique Rashid Ali said the remand ends tomorrow evening.

“Police had originally applied for a four-day remand on several grounds and we objected. After listening to both sides, the court allowed for a two-day remand,” Rafique told reporters.

He did not rule out the possibility that the remand would be extended, saying the authorities could apply for a remand order twice under the law.

Badrul, better known as Chegubard, was arrested over a posting on a Bloomberg report of the alleged talks on opening a casino at Forest City in Johor.

Rafique asked if the authorities intended to take action against Bloomberg, Business Times and The Straits Times for publishing the report.

“The public has compared the writings by these three publications and what Chegubard wrote and find them to be almost similar,” he said.

Rafique also questioned the need to arrest Badrul on a Saturday evening, saying Badrul would have cooperated with the authorities if he had been called up later.

“If this is not intimidation, I don’t know what is,” he said.

Apart from sedition, Badrul is being investigated under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act for abuse of network facilities.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Berjaya and Genting have since denied the Bloomberg report, with Anwar calling for action to be taken against the media company over its allegation.

The report had said that Anwar met Berjaya founder Vincent Tan and Genting Group’s Lim Kok Thay last week to discuss a casino licence for Forest City. Quoting sources “familiar with the matter”, it said a casino would revive the US$100 billion property project.

In his Facebook post, Badrul insinuated that the alleged new casino was the “financial hub” that Anwar had previously announced, and he thanked Bloomberg and Singapore’s Business Times for publishing their articles on the talks.

Anwar, who is also the finance minister, had previously announced that a special financial zone would be created in the Forest City area to stimulate investment and economic growth in Johor.