By Shannon Teoh | The Malaysian Insider
May 23, 2010
LONDON, May 23 — Fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin has thrown down the gauntlet to Malaysian authorities, challenging them to bring standing charges against him to the courts in the United Kingdom.
Swaggering into a packed hall in the UK capital yesterday and flanked by two burly men in dark glasses, the controversial Malaysia Today writer insisted that he would fight charges of criminal defamation and sedition as well as the appeal against his Internal Security Act (ISA) detention, given a level playing field.
“I will take on the government and I will fight them but I will do what Sun Tzu said, ‘Fight him in your territory.’
“So my territory is here in the UK,” he declared to applause from a largely partisan crowd of over 300, who had their bags searched before entering the hall at the BPP Law School.
Many had to stand for the two-hour talk by the blogger, who repeated what he had written over the years, in his first formal appearance after over a year in self-imposed exile.
Raja Petra wore his now signature beret and immediately refuted the notion that he should return home to prove his innocence of the charges levelled against him.
“A first year law student can tell you that it is not the job of the accused to prove his innocence. It is the job of the prosecution to prove guilt.
“There is the UK court here. There need not be phone call or phone call from someone’s wife,” he said in a thinly-veiled jibe against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, whom he has previously accused of interfering with institutions such as the judiciary.
Despite calls from various BN lawmakers to bring Raja Petra to justice, the government has so far not followed up on suggestions that they apply to extradite the runaway blogger who has made many claims, including the involvement of Najib and Rosmah in scandals such as the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shariibuu.
Police have said they were looking into reports that he was seen in several countries, including the UK and Australia, after he absconded but have not reported any success.
Raja Petra, widely known by his initials RPK, also explained that Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is facing a sodomy charge which Pakatan Rakyat insists is trumped up, was in a different boat.
“Anwar has accepted the fact that he has to stay (in Malaysia) as he aspires to be the next prime minister. I have no political aspirations.
“I’ll probably be a free man longer than Anwar,” he quipped.
The member of the Selangor royal family referred to several incidences in his previous brushes with the law to back his claim that the Malaysian judiciary was not independent.
He questioned why the Federal Court had yet to decide on the government’s appeal against his release from the ISA, after more than a year.
He also said that he had tried to obtain a full bench of nine judges and “thought that maybe we will get seven but we ended up with just three.”
“We were told it was an administrative decision but nobody told us who made the decision or who were the judges until the day of the hearing.
“On the morning of the hearing, we found that one of them was Augustine Paul,” Raja Petra said, repeating what he had written about the hearing.
The late judge had in 2001 denied a habeas corpus application by Raja Petra to declare his first ISA detention illegal. Raja Petra had also written numerous articles criticising the judge who had also presided over Anwar’s first sodomy trial, which saw the sacked deputy prime minister being jailed for six years.
“I’ve written a lot of nasty things about him and called him all sorts of names. Even I would cite myself for contempt of court! How will he give me a fair trial?” Raja Petra said.
do you think our HP6 attorney general, along with the HP6 prosecutors and judges dare to go abroad to trial RPK?
if everything is fixed like sports toto, then maybe they would go. other than that they dont even have the balls to debate their own characters in foreign land.
Moreover, they have to file their applications/documents in english. so forget about it.
bully rakyat bolehlah. duit masuk poket bolehlah. apalagi boleh. sial.
Raja Petra is full of guts and he talks sense. I like his videos very much, especially http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZpd5gEhJUc&feature=player_embedded
I am glad Raja Petra is safe and sound.
He is a real brave man….with a mission.
Next stop for RPK – New York and Washington. Twist that torn on the side of Najib & Rosmah..
///Fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin has thrown down the gauntlet to Malaysian authorities, challenging them to bring standing charges against him to the courts in the United Kingdom. “I will take on the government and I will fight them but I will do what Sun Tzu said, ‘Fight him in your territory.’- RPK
Key words – “courts in the United Kingdom”
Here he believes courts will hear his truth. He waits that opportunity.
The opposite of that is to apply and get the UK govt to extradite him back here to face Malaysian courts.
But heres the catch: extradition is the process where the home country wants to prosecute an individual/citizen located in foreign territory and applies to foreign courts to order direct his extradition.
Extradition cannot happen if a one time citizen is no more Malaysian citizen but say a UK or American Citizen. Extradition cannot arise if he’s UK citizen by now or if he were (say) a US citizen only the US not Malaysia can apply to extradite him.Key words – “Sun Tzu said, ‘Fight him in your territory” – “So my territory is here in the UK” ….
Its understood any application will blow up RPK’s allegations internationally and yet not in law be able to secure his extradition. Don’t forget his mother was a from Wales and he was born there….
Millions of taxpayers’ $$$ will be squandered on hiring Queen’s Councils such as Blair’s wife to get RPK extradited to bolehland
It will be the Muslims that will turn against UMNO B.
Malaysian Chinese are dead set against corruptions and double standards.
Najib now relies on the Indians to swing votes…as seen clearly in Hulu Selangor…but MIC is no more important.
Yes…Muslims are so sick of Najib’s hypocritical personality.. and double meaning and twisting talks. They hated Mahathir more and more for that… and now it is Najib.
Yes Muslims are leaving UMNO B and that got Najib in frenzy moods….making deals with Foochows…and insulting his Allah…to embrace other religions…when UMNO B keep on promoting Islam is the one and only true religion.
No one dares to talk like that..in the whole world..except UMNO B hypocrites.
Yes religions is partly that open the eyes and ears of Muslims…to reject UMNO B hypocrites.
They talk about RMmillions…as if inherited from their grandfathers..to do as they like…and offer to Rajang Park residents…like from himself…and not money belongs to all of us..in trust for him to do all good.
Do not fall into Najib’s sweet nothing lies.
And remember….Mahathir taught his band of robbers and thieves…to stay strong and never admit any mistakes.
That’s why he dared to say…’I forgot” 14 times..lying.
And Najib thinks he is an expert dealer wheeler too……..hahahahahahaha
ekompute….Thank you very much for that video on RPK.
hi guys…click and listen to RPK speech.
He is a Malay and speaks of Malays misfortunes under UMNO B.
I strongly feel RPK will convert more to vote for change..and it looks like..besides Anwar…he is the second most wanted man to be jailed by Najib.
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/1223/dsc00877ma.jpg
Would they had suffered the fate of Aminul if they had been standing in front of a bolehland balai polis?
Augustine Paul heard Raja Petra’s protest n gracefully kicked d bucket 2 fulfill RPK’s wish
What RPK said is correct, correct, correct: our judiciary is partisan n untrustworthy, under d sarong of BN executives
Smart 2 get out n live 2 fight, rather than 2 b incarcerated n rot in Kamunting as a panda bear (with permanent 2 black eyes)
Asking Najib to fight the case in UK is like asking for the moon. The whole world know that there is no evidence against RPK and if our AG were to present his case in UK, he will be made a laughing stock. Only in Malaysia the AG can have “solid” evidence against RPK!
The thought of fighting RPK in UK will send chills down Najib’s spine!!!
Ok RPK, come GE13 Pakatan will swap the place for you and Najib &co.Sungai Buloh prison for Najib and you can come back to Malaysia.We can sip some margarita(alcohol free) ok?Cheers,
RPK was only waiting to be extradited, if the Malaysian government is willing to have the case heard in the UK court to justify the action. Obviously, the Malaysian government is only too happy to see that RPK is not in town. Najib does not care what leaders in other countries think about him, and so he was more prepared to let RPK talk outside than to silence him through the UK court. That is just being practical.
“I am glad Raja Petra is safe and sound.
He is a real brave man….with a mission.” posting #3 by monsterball.
I don’t agree with everything RPK writes but I agree unreservedly with Monsterball’s statement that he is a brave man with (so far) “no political aspirations” but focus only on the Malaysian Cause.
In Malaysia Today on 27th May 2009 wrote about Malaysian police seeking the help of Interpol to apprehend him as fugitive.
On 22nd May 2010 Malaysiatoday also said that “a visit to the New Scotland Yard office revealed that there was no extradition request from the Malaysian government, nor was there any warrant of arrest issued against Raja Petra Kamarudin, as what local media here reported.
If true the implication is that local media reported an attempt to pursue and not forgive him for trangressions (criminal defamation/sedition) allegedly committed here but fact is there is no real intention to pursue the matter internationally by reason of the unwanted international publicity that such an attempt to get him extradited would cause.
Yet knowing Pete (as he is known amongst friends) he would covered all his legal bases (with QC’s advice). I doubt its true that, as what Scotland Yard allegedly said, there’s no extradition treaty between UK and Malaysia. I think there is covered under UK’s Fugitive Offenders Act 1967. I do not know its detailed provisions but the fact that there’s extradition treaty does not mean a person can be easioly extradited! There are generally three important bars to extradition: (a) if his alleged offence is not also a criminal act in UK ( based on dual criminality principle); (b) his alleged crime is politically motivated (he gets political asylum) and (c) Citizenship (its easier to extradite if he’s not a British citizen. (Pete by now might or might not have obtained British Citizenship. Easier for him, he was born there). It is difficult to extradite a Britrish citizen but not impossible: Jeffrey Tesler, a British citizen/lawyer was extradited to the United States to face prosecution in Houston for his role in allegedly bribing officials of the government of Nigeria to secure contracts in a $6 billion natural gas project. This could be because of UK-US Special relationship to enjoin them in Iraq War).
His latest photo in London showed with BBMF Lorrain Esme Osman who fought successfully extradition to Hong Kong. Lorrain would have taught Pete the ropes. The photos show he has 4 ex special forces body guards. This is to prevent some people circumvent legal process to forcibly “abduct” and get him “shanghaied” into some cargo ship and send him back to Malaysia. How he has money to employ these professionals when he always told us he was broke eludes me, for now.
If you happen to read this cheers, regards to Marina as well.
May all be well and good for RPK and his wife.
I am happy to hear RPK is comfortable with the British government.
13th GE will be his final fate for life…and it argurs well for him and all Malaysians.
COME!
There is an extradition treaty between the U.K. and Malaysia. But RPK is not a fugitive from justice but an asylee fleeing persecution and not prosecution.
RPK cannot be deported back to Malaysia even if the British government wants to once asylum is granted to him by a British immigration court.
RPK is right to have run away.
Having seen the the way the trial of DSAI for Sodomy II is conducted, he must be scared of the sure conviction he will get. It is very scary. All Malaysians should be very scared, not just RPK. This can happened to any one of us.
Someone could make a police report that you have raped him or her or some other crimes. The AG then decide to charge you for the crime, and you are denied access to the police reports and all the “evidence”, list of witnesses. As you progress in your defence, the prosecution produce evidence to ambush you. The police reports could be manufactured and tailored to what you have said in your defence. I thought this could only happen in China or Vietnam or Russia. (Is Obama condoning all this to get the people in power to support his nuclear program?)
This is very scary. All right minded Malaysians should be scared, very scared.
The problem I see is that there are a lot of voters who cannot see this. They can only see the funds promised to build a new school wing. I was very sad when I saw the news and pictures of the Chinese School Board, who had wide smiles. Yes, they got the short term benefits. But, I think they sacrifice the long term destiny of all Malaysians.
And you have this Saiful, who is so keen to swear by the holy book but do not have the courage to provide this police statement and stand by it.
The only hopefor Malaysians for an independent judiciary and and justice is to change the government in 2013.
I was referring to the board of the Chinese School in Hulu Selangor.