KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — Nurul Izzah Anwar was released today after her statement was taken in the sedition investigation over her parliamentary speech last week on behalf of her father Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
According to several Twitter postings, the PKR vice-president was released at around 12.20pm this afternoon after recording her statement at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters.
“Nurul Izzah Anwar is released!” DAP lawmaker Teo Nie Ching tweeted.
She also shared a Malaysiakini photograph of the leader raising her arm and smiling as she walked out of the station, flanked by her sister Nurul Nuha, lawyer R. Sivarasa and several others.
Earlier, PKR communications chief Fahmi Fadzil said Nurul Izzah was taken this morning from the Jinjang police lock-up where she spent the night in detention to her home to collect something related to the sedition probe.
He said the lawmaker would be released after her statement is recorded.
“The police informed lawyers that they will not remand Nurul Izzah further after her statement is taken at the Dang Wangi police headquarters later,” Fahmi said in a statement.
Nurul Izzah was detained yesterday after going voluntarily to the Dang Wangi district police headquarters to record her statement on two separate probes — one on her involvement in the #KitaLawan rally two weeks ago and one on her parliamentary speech for Anwar.
In the speech that Nurul Izzah read out to Parliament last week, Anwar had reportedly criticised his five-year imprisonment for sodomy and claimed that those in the judiciary had sold their souls to the devil.
In a statement late last night, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar explained that the Lembah Pantai MP would be released once investigators record her statement.
The national police chief did not say, however, when her statement would be taken or if the police will apply to remand her further as they previously said they would.
Nurul Izzah’s arrest has earned headlines in renowned international publications, including financial dailies like the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, and other famous media outfits like the New York Times.
Earlier today, her lawyer Sivarasa accused Khalid of lying about Nurul Izzah’s arrest, pointing out that the lawmaker’s arrest had been unnecessary as her statements could have been recorded yesterday.
