Raja Petra in celebratory mood

Star - Blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin was celebrating – by smoking too much – a day before the Government charged him with sedition.

“I have been celebrating as finally the Government is charging me,” he said.

Asked if he had slept well, he laughed and said he had a bad cough due to too much smoking.

He said his defence team would prove there was no case against him and that it was a case of “political persecution”.

“They lost in the election because of the Internet war. Malaysia Today was one of the 'culprits',” said Raja Petra who turned up in the Jalan Duta court complex here at 9.06am.

Earlier, a large crowd comprising bloggers, MPs, lawyers and well-wishers gathered at the court lobby in Jalan Duta.

At about 10.30am, Raja Petra said he received a call from a policeman telling him to go to the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court.

He left the Jalan Duta complex five minutes later in a friend’s car.

After the court proceedings ended, his lead counsel K. Balaguru said his client did not have money to post the RM5,000 bail while Raja Petra’s wife, Marina Lee Abdullah, said her husband wanted his online readers to contribute RM1 each for his bail.

“I tried to persuade him not to stay in the lock-up but he says that it is his stand. He is very stubborn,” added Marina.

His CIMB account number was posted on his website from morning. By 4pm, readers had contributed RM24,500 and US$3,283.61 (RM10,441.87). The donation campaign was called off at 5.30pm and the website stated that excess funds would be donated to a charitable home of Raja Petra’s choice.

Meanwhile, the Bar Council Malaysia called on the authorities to withdraw the charge against Raja Petra.

“The Sedition Act is a draconian, archaic and repressive legislation that has long outlived any perceived utility it might ever have had,” it said in a press release.