Nathaniel Tan, the Malaysian blogger and activist who was arrested on the 13th and remanded to police custody for four days has been released on bail. He has posted his statement about the events at his blog. His statement is an eloquent and inspiring response, and there's really nothing I could say to add to it here. Here are a few excerpts from his statement, but do go read the whole thing.

I was eventually made to understand that I was arrested in connection to accusations made on the internet regarding Datuk Johari Baharum.

The connection to me was based on a comment made on my blog that was made by an anonymous commentor on the 10th of Februrary, 2007.

It was prepostorous of the police to suspect me of publishing these accusations based on documents protected by the Official Secrets Act that were supposedly in my posessesion. There is absolutely nothing even remotely resembling proof to substantiate such claims.   more »

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 »