Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Student apologises over Karpal death threat - NST

JOHOR BARU: April 29, 2008

An 18-year-old college student yesterday apologised to DAP national chairman Karpal Singh for posting a death threat against him on a website hosted by Pas Johor Baru.

The student, accompanied by his father and Johor Baru Pas representative, turned up at the Johor Baru (South) district police headquarters yesterday afternoon and admitted that he was responsible for posting the death threat.

Police recorded a statement from the student and released him.

The death threat had been part of the brickbats hurled at Karpal following allegations that he was a bigot for continuously opposing the formation of an Islamic state.

The student also went to the Johor Baru DAP office and met DAP Johor deputy chairman Norman Fernandez.

He handed over a letter of apology for Karpal to Fernandez.

Fernandez said in the student's handwritten letter, he claimed that he was not aware of the implication of posting the death threat.

"He expressed remorse for his action and promised that he'll not post any more offensive messages on the Internet.

"The student, who is from a humble background, hopes that Karpal will withdraw the police report he had lodged at the Penang state police headquarters on Saturday," Fernandez said.

Penang police had transferred the case to the Johor Baru police headquarters as the death threat had been posted here.

Following the media publicity surrounding the death threat, Pas had apologised to Johor DAP for allowing the comment to be posted on its website.

The party had also apologised for the incident in a statement posted on the website, pasjohorbahru.com, on Saturday.

It had also removed the death threat.

Pas Johor commissioner Datuk Dr Mahfodz Mohamad had also stressed that the comment did not reflect Pas' stand.

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