Nurul Izzah Anwar's lawyer R. Sivarasa has accused the Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar of lying to the public on the remand of the opposition lawmaker yesterday.

He said Khalid’s statement last night on her arrest and remand was malicious and illegal.

Sivarasa who is the counsel for Nurul Izzah said Khalid had attempted to justify Nurul Izzah’s remand by saying that she will be released once statement has been recorded.

“He attempts to give the impression therefore that the police were unable to record her statement yesterday hence necessitating the remand. That impression he attempts to give is false and totally unbecoming of the head of the police force,” he said in a statement on Facebook.

He said the Lembah Pantai member of Parliament had voluntarily went to IPD Dang Wangi yesterday at 2pm to have two statements recorded – one on the #KitaLawan rally and the other was related to the sedition investigation on her speech in Parliament last week.

In her speech, Nurul Izzah had questioned the country's judiciary over her father's sodomy conviction.

Also read: "We want police who serve the rakyat, not Najib and UMNO" - Nurul Izzah

Sivarasa who had accompanied Nurul Izzah to the Jinjang station said she had completed her statement to Insp Ridzuan for the #KitaLawan gathering by 3pm and were ready to start the sedition investigation statement.

He said they had met ASP Muniandy from Bukit Aman who is handling the sedition investigation and had confirmed with him that she will have her statement recorded after the rally gathering statement.

“Instead of recording her statement, ASP Muniandy then informed us that his instructions were to arrest her first, do her arrest documentation and then record her statement. When I asked if she would be released after that, he refused to commit himself, saying he would have to get instructions from his superiors in Bukit Aman,” he said.

Sivarasa said after the arrest documentation was completed about 5pm, Muniandy told them that his instructions were to remand Nurul Izzah in Jinjang Lockup and that the police would seek a further remand the next morning.

“Muniandy informed us that he had advised his superiors that he should complete recording Nurul Izzah's statement and release her on police bail but that his superiors' instructions were to proceed to remand,” he said.

“When we pressed him who were these superiors, although he did not name them, we were left with a clear impression these instructions were coming from the very top of the police force in Bukit Aman,” he added.
He said those present at IPD Dang Wangi knew well that Nurul Izzah’s statement could have easily been recorded yesterday afternoon since they were ready to do by 3pm.

He said Khalid should resign for his “shameless lies” to the public to attempt to justify his instructions to his officers to remand Nurul Izzah overnight in Jinjang Lockup, a remand which Sivarasa said was totally unnecessary.

“Khalid should know that it is obvious to all and sundry that his detention of Nurul Izzah has UMNO's political fingerprints all over it. Unintelligent lies will not make that impression go away,” he added.