Coordinator Zaid Malek said it was “seriously ridiculous” to launch a probe on a tweet that only stated “???”.

In a tweet dated July 28, Azfarul Naim (@fvgtitan) shared a picture of a news story showing Ali visiting a “village gymnasium” in Kesang Tua, where Olympic gold medallist for the Philippines, Hidilyn Diaz, had trained.

His tweet was retweeted 1,400 times.

“There’s nothing criminal about it, but the Sedition Act and CMA (Communications and Multimedia Act) allow for this sort of sham investigation because the terms used are too wide.

“The authorities and government should protect freedom of expression under Article 10(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution, not curb it with laws like this,” he said.

Police in Melaka Tengah seized Azfarul’s mobile phone after arresting him. His lawyer Ahmad Azri Abdullah said Azfarul was not remanded and released on bail the same day.

Azri said police had informed them that they were investigating the case under the Sedition Act as well as CMA. He too reiterated that there was nothing seditious about Azfarul’s tweet.

“A total of eight individuals were also called to have their statements recorded. We were informed that four of them might be charged in court on Wednesday,” he added.

Zaid said the four individuals should not be charged at all. “Those two laws should have been repealed long ago,” he added.