RPK dares Putrajaya to discuss his return
Raja Petra did not elaborate on the other conditions for his return to Malaysia. — file pic
LONDON, Sept 24 — Raja Petra Kamarudin will call for an imminent showdown with the government over his “exile” from Malaysia, to “settle the matter once and for all.”
The controversial blogger, widely known as RPK, will send a letter via his legal advisors to the Malaysian government by Monday, if not tomorrow, requesting a meeting with its High Commissioner to the UK Datuk Zakaria Sulong to discuss terms of his return.
He stressed that this was a chance for the government to bring him home as they claimed to have been trying to do.
“It’s up to the government to respond or else shut the f*** up forever. Quote me on that or don’t bother to contact me again.
“Tell Datuk Zakaria that when he comes on October 2, I want him to show me my new passport and plane tickets. Without those, how to fly home?” he said, referring to the fact that his passport has expired and the High Commission would have to issue him a new one for him to return.
Having been in “exile” since May 2009 in the midst of sedition and criminal defamation trials and what he claimed was a second attempt to detain him under the Internal Security Act (ISA), Raja Petra has spent the past few months calling what appears to be the government’s bluff.
When Malaysian police insisted they were still trying to track his whereabouts, he came out to speak in public in May and stated that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government knew all along as he had met various Umno figures in the United Kingdom over the past year.
Raja Petra also challenged Malaysian authorities to extradite him from the UK, claiming that unlike the judicial system in Malaysia, an extradition request must be based on corresponding illegality. He has also said that his lawyers have informed Scotland Yard, headquarters of the London police, that he was available to them anytime.
When asked by The Malaysian Insider what terms he would be setting, Raja Petra declined to pre-empt the letter that was being prepared by his lawyers.
In July, he had issued an open offer to Datuk Seri Najib Razak for him to return to Malaysia if the prime minister could guarantee that he would not be placed under detention without trial via the ISA “and forget another six charges I know they were preparing.”
He had promised he would return to fight the sedition and criminal defamation cases that had since been dropped (dismissals not amounting to acquittals) as Raja Petra was not present at the trials and the arrest warrants had expired.
Najib has been a prime target for Raja Petra, who has accused him of, among other things, being directly involved in the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shariibuu, and a related submarine deal that French authorities are now investigating for an alleged irregularity in commission payments, said to amount to RM500 million.
Raja Petra will request that the meeting with Zakaria on October 2 be held at the same time and venue where Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PKR strategy director Tian Chua are scheduled to speak to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) supporters in London.
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