Rama Ramanathan, of the Citizen Action Group on Enforced Disappearance, has been asked to present himself at the Bukit Aman police headquarters on Nov 11.
He said he was informed that he would be investigated under Section 504 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Act – laws dealing with “intentional insult” and “the improper use of network facilities”.
Rama said the investigation had to do with an Oct 20 article he posted on his blog titled “This sister may have foiled an attempt by the police to disappear her brother”. In it, he cited witnesses accounts of how Jufazli’s sister Nurazimah Shi Ahmad might have prevented the siblings from being the latest victims of enforced disappearance.
Rama said he had written several other articles on the arrest of Jufazli, a staunch critic of the Najib Razak administration who had also accused the Pakatan Harapan government of inaction against corrupt leaders in Sabah and Sarawak.
“The articles include facts recounted by witnesses and my opinions about what those facts reveal, in light of the Suhakam inquiry’s conclusion that the police are behind the enforced disappearances of Amri Che Mat and Raymond Koh,” he said, referring to the Human Rights Commission’s findings which accused police of involvement in enforced disappearances.
Rama said the latest probe against him would not stop him from exposing police abuse.
“I believe there must be a commitment to truth and I must exemplify it – even when the truth is derived from linking together various bits of information.
“Therefore, I write as I do,” the activist said.
Nurazimah, 31, was acquitted last month of a charge of obstructing police from arresting her brother Jufazli at her apartment in Cheras in the wee hours of March 16.
The siblings were arrested and Nurazimah was remanded separately for four days.
Rama, in his article, praised Nurazimah for insisting on her rights throughout her ordeal, including making arrangements for the whereabouts of her brother to be tracked.
“If not for Nurazimah’s awareness of her rights, her suspicion of the police, her determination to stand up for her rights and her assigning ‘tails’ to the unmarked cars which the police used to whisk away her brother, Jufazli may have been the victim of another enforced disappearance operation carried out by the Malaysian police.
“She’s an awesome sister,” Rama added in his blog.