Two men and one woman have been arrested for allegedly insulting former Malaysian king Sultan Muhammad V in relation to his recent abdication, Inspector-General of Royal Malaysia Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said on Wednesday.
He said the men were aged 46 and 27, and the woman, 26. They were arrested on Tuesday.
Last Sunday, Sultan Muhammad V stepped down as Malaysia's king, confirming rumors that were circulating online during the week. "The arrests were made after we received a number of reports regarding users of social media accounts posting comments containing insults toward Sultan Muhammad V," the police chief said in the statement.
"Those who were arrested are the owners of two Twitter accounts (@azhamakhtar and @aliaastaman) and the owner of a Facebook account with the name Eric Liew," he added.
The two Twitter accounts and the original Facebook post by Eric Liew appeared to have been taken down as of Wednesday afternoon, though screenshots of the alleged insults continued to be widely shared. Liew's employer Cisco ASEAN announced that he had left the company.
-AFP, Kuala Lumpur
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