GMA News, reports that Raja Petra Kamaruddin has been sentenced to two years imprisonment under a tough security law that could keep him in jail indefinately.

Online commentator Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin, known for his anti-government views, was already in police custody and was served a detention order Monday night, said his lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.

The order was signed by Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who has said Raja Petra’s writings pose a threat to national security by creating racial tension.

Raja Petra has increasingly infuriated authorities by publishing numerous claims about alleged wrongdoings by government leaders on his popular site, Malaysia Today, which serves as his blog as well as a news portal. The government has denounced most of Raja Petra’s allegations as lies.

The laws under which Raja was arrested give the authorities the option of renewing the prison term once that initial two years is over.

Malaysian blogger Syed Azidi Syed Aziz has been released from prison. Kickedefella as he is known in blogging circles, was arrested last week in Malaysia on suspicion of “sedition” (a popular out-of-proportion, ill-defined “crime” bloggers are frequently charged with). According to the International Herald Tribune, Aziz is due back in court on October 17 to find out whether he will be officially charged. He is a critic of the current Malaysian government and posted a graphic of the Malaysian flag upside down on one of his posts.

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Syed Azidi Syed Aziz, better known as Sheih Kickdefella, was arrested this week. Kickdefella was the second blogger in Malaysia to be arrested, after Raja Petra Kamaruddin, in a country-wide crackdown. Kickdefella, a Conservative opposition critic of the government, was arrested for…oh, G-d, who knows, but he put his country’s flag upside down on his blog.

Moroccan blogger Mohamed Erraji has been acquitted, according to RSF. (Thanks to @digiactive.) Erraji was arrested for criticizing the king in early September, he was hurried through a kangaroo court, sentenced to two years in prison and fined 5,000 dirhams, then released on bail on appeal, then acquitted.

The appeal court found that correct judicial procedure was violated. Erraji was arrested and charged on 4 September and his lawyer appeared before a court in his defence on 16 September, 12 days later. But article 72 of the press law requires a minimum of 15 days between the filing of charges and the first hearing in the trial.

The decision is heartening. The judges in the appeal court in Agadir showed matter-of-fact integrity, as they should have.

Paul wrote to tell us that Gopalan Nair has been sentenced to three months in prison in Singapore by Judge Kan Ting Chiu. Nair, an American citizen originally from Singapore, was arrested in May for “insulting a public servant” when he criticized Singapore Supreme Court Justice Belinda Ang. Some have called the criticism “racist.” Be that as it may, he was arrested, and sentenced, for insulting someone.

Here at CPB we are astounded by Malaysia’s anti-criticism streak, with the government facing tough times they have decide that bloggers and website publishers are fair game.

We were a little optimistic that the Malaysia Cabinet decision to rescind the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block Malaysia Today and all other blocked sites was a step in the right direction but the arrest of Raja Petra Kamaruddin now under the country’s tough internal security act (ISA), this is on top of the sedition and defamation charges he is facing.

According to Committee to Protect Journalists, blogger and human rights lawyer, Harris Ibrahim was also arrested for posting about Raja’s arrest.

ZDNet Asia writes

The opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) condemned the arrest of Raja Petra and said the move “smacks of desperation” by the BN government.

Tony Pua, opposition member of parliament and economic advisor to the DAP secretary-general, said: “The government is flip-flopping and is seen as a headless chicken. They realized they did a stupid thing by banning Malaysia Today, and now they are compounding it by trying to ‘neutralize’ Raja Petra under the ISA.”

Pua reckoned that the action Raja Petra signaled the start of a crackdown not only on bloggers and Web site operators, but also on those deemed a threat to the ruling elite.

This has raised ire with Malaysia’s bloggers and opposition and we hope that the government realises it folly and ceases fighting its political wars on the internet and arresting critics.

We are monitoring this situation and we’ll give more updates as we get them.