Badrul, also known as Chegubard, said he and Zahid had not insulted the king at any point in the five-minute clip, which concerned allegations he made about Sultan Ibrahim giving Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim a car.

“Instead, we defended the king by explaining to people that he is the hope of the people to save the country,” he said outside Bukit Aman before being questioned by the police.

He also claimed that the police investigation against them was a form of intimidation and contravened the constitutional right to freedom of speech.

On Monday, top cop Razarudin Husain confirmed that police had launched an investigation against Badrul and Zahid. The latter is a former political secretary to Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Razarudin said they were being investigated under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948.

Badrul claimed that the investigation was also being conducted under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, adding that this was unwarranted since neither he nor Zahid had recorded or circulated the clip on social media.

“Even if I’m arrested, I will not hand over my device to the police because I shouldn’t be investigated under the Communications and Multimedia Act,” he said.