Malaysia deports controversial Saudi tweeter

Hamza Kashgari

Manama: Malaysia on Sunday [Feb. 12, 2012] deported controversial Saudi former columnist Hamza Kashgari after Riyadh requested his extradition following the outrage caused by comments deemed blasphemous and insulting to Prophet Mohammad on his Twitter account.

Malaysian newspaper The Sun Daily reported that Kashgari was deported back home two hours and a half before his lawyers managed to get a High Court injunction to stop the deportation.

The lawyers, led by R Kesavan, said that they obtained the injunction at 1:30 pm on Sunday, but were told that Kashgari has been put on a plane at 10am.

The injunction was an order to the police, the Home Ministry, as well as the Subang and Kuala Lumpur International Airport immigration authorities to stop Kashgari's deportation, the daily said.

"We managed to get the injunction from High Court Judge Datuk Rohana Yusof at her house," Kesavan said. "As he is now out of the country, there is nothing more we can do."

Kashgari, 23, last week went into hiding before fleeing Saudi Arabia for Malaysia amid reports that he wanted to go to another country to avoid facing justice in his home country where insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous.

The Malaysian daily said that Hamza, whose official name is reportedly Mohammad Najeeb, was detained at the airport as he was departing for New Zealand and was reported to have entered Malaysia two days earlier.

Prior to his fleeing Saudi Arabia, he issued a statement in which he apologised for his remarks and announced his repentance.

However, he was arrested at Kuala Lumpur airport and handed over to Saudi officials who took him to Saudi Arabia where his fate is still unknown.

Thousands of Saudis have called on the internet for the most stringent action against Hamza for his "highly despicable irresponsible behaviour and his terribly outrageous attitudes."

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Source: Gulf News, Feb. 12, 2012

18 hours ago

The 23-year-old Kashgari reportedly posted the comments on his Twitter feed on Saturday, drawing thousands of outraged comments on Twitter and other social networking sites. Kashgari later said in an interview that he was ...

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