KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — Police did not at any time handcuff PKR's Rafizi Ramli when they arrested him on Tuesday, the Inspector-General of Police said today.
Responding to criticism stemming from a video that showed the Pandan MP with his hands behind his back during the arrest, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said claims that police restrained Rafizi were false.
“@PDRMsia hereby confirms that the honourable Rafizi Ramli was not handcuffed the entire time he has been in our custody this time. Stop the accusations,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
The video purportedly of the arrest and still images taken from it have been distributed online, drawing criticism from Internet users over the alleged use of handcuffs on the federal lawmaker.
Rafizi was arrested outside the Parliament gates on Tuesday for allegedly breaching the Official Secrets Act (OSA) in making public a document from the Auditor-General’s Report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
He is currently under remand until tomorrow at the Jinjang police detention centre.
Pakatan Harapan lawmakers today staged a march from Parliament to the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman to demand Rafizi’s release, and will now be questioned for allegedly violating the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012.
