Malaysian blogger and activist Nathaniel Tan, from Bangkit.net and Jelas.info was arrested without charge on Friday. He was taken from his work Friday afternoon by plainclothes officers who did not identify themselves, and did not tell him he was being arrested or the reason he was wanted for questioning. He was asked to bring his laptop and told that it had something to do with the internet. Police had him in lock-up for six hours while his friends and colleagues searched for him, all the while denying that they had him in custody.

The court remanded him to custody on Saturday for four days, in a closed-door hearing which police attempted to orchestrate without informing Nat's lawyers (from Elizabeth Wong). Nat has not actually been charged with a crime, but is being held for an investigation - even though the police have already seized his laptop and home computer, as well as CD-Roms and documents.

The current official line is that Nat is being held under section 8 of the Official Secrets Act.   more »