KUALA LUMPUR: PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu was the latest opposition leader arrested for participating in last Friday’s May Day anti-GST rally.

His lawyer Nasar Khan, who confirmed the arrest, said that Mohamad, who is popularly known as Mat Sabu, was being investigated under Section 143 of the Penal Code and Section 4 of the Sedition Act.

“I am with him right now, he is being arrested for his participation in the rally,” Nasar said.

He added that the PAS leader was contacted earlier by police asking him to present himself at the Dang Wangi police headquarters. He was nabbed after arriving at the police station yesterday morning.

“He was called to go there [but] police didn’t say what for. When he arrived, he was arrested,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Nasar said he has yet to ascertain whether police would apply for a remand order against Mohamad.

Meanwhile, the 23 youths arrested during the Workers Day rally on May 1 will only be released today after police obtained an additional day to remand them for investigations, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) said.

The youths, who have been in the police lock-up since last Friday night, were supposed to be released yesterday at the end of a three-day remand order, but the legal rights group said police were abusing their powers by holding them an extra day.

Yesterday, LFL using the handle @lawyers4liberty posted on Twitter: “Update on the 23 rally goers: remand extended to one day, to be freed tomorrow”.

Earlier, it tweeted: “Police just informed will apply for further remand re the 23 anti GST rally detainees at IPD Dang Wangi. Lawyer Chan Yen Hui attending.”

It also said that the investigating officer had initially informed lawyers that the youths would be released yesterday. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 5, 2015.