KUALA LUMPUR: Activist Mohd Ali Baharom, better known as Ali Tinju, was arrested under the Sedition Act yesterday for making a fiery speech to a mob outside Low Yat Plaza in Bukit Bintang here on Sunday night.

Kuala Lumpur CID chief Datuk Zainuddin Ahmad confirmed his arrest to The Malaysian Insider.

Ali, who is also Armed Forces Veterans Association president, was detained at the Dang Wangi police station at 11.30am yesterday where he had been summoned to give a statement.

He was detained under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act.

Ali was earlier named by the police at a press conference yesterday as one of those to be arrested over brawls outside Low Yat Plaza on Sunday night, which followed the alleged theft of a handphone by a youth the day before.

The mob purportedly went there to seek revenge for the youth’s arrest in the incident that became highly racialised.

Police classified the case as theft and said they would act against those who used social media to spread lies and sow racial hatred.

Ali is also known for leading a group of armed forces veterans in doing “butt exercises” outside the house of then Bersih 2.0 co-chair Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan in 2012. They accused her of tarnishing Malaysia’s image.

About 200 people regrouped outside Low Yat Plaza around midnight on Sunday despite police cordoning the area and clearing it of people earlier.

Fist fights ensued and five people were injured, three of them media personnel.

Police had detained 19 others earlier. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 15, 2015.