The police obtained a four-day remand order against opposition party PKR staff Nathaniel Tan, 26, at the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate's Court today.

Police had initially attempted to obtain a full 14-day remand order but this was denied by the magistrate. The request for an additional four days was to allow the police to investigate Tan, who is also a prominent blogger.

It is not clear whether the police will charge Tan when the remand order expires on Tuesday, or an extension is sought from the court.

Investigating officer DSP Victor Sanjos, from the police's Cyber Crimes Unit, confirmed that Tan was being investigated under Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act 1972.

This particular section of the law relates to "wrongful communication, etc. of official secret" ( sic ) [ See chart below ].

If convicted, Tan will face a mandatory jail term of at least one year to a maximum of seven years.

Police sources indicate that Tan was being investigated in connection to an Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) investigation against Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharom.

Johari was recently cleared by the ACA who investigated him based on allegations on an anonymous website which claimed that the deputy minister received millions in bribes to free several detainees held under the Emergency Ordinance.

The deputy minister said today he had instructed the police to trace authors that spread "lies" through websites.

Tan's lawyer Latheefa Koya told malaysiakini that the police were investigating a comment posted by an individual on the former's blog .

The individual who posted the comment, re-published three paragraphs found in the anonymous website which implicated Johari and was the subject of the ACA investigation against him.

"I'm afraid I can't publish the rest of the comment because the sources were unattributed and the information as of yet unverified. However, you can visit the author's site, where the exact same information is posted. Apologies and thanks!" added Tan in the same comment post.

It is believed that the police are hunting down the individual who posted the original comment.

Cat-and-mouse game

Yesterday , Tan was whisked away for 'questioning' by three plainclothes police personnel at an office building in Petaling Jaya yesterday evening at about 4.30pm.

He was then brought to his house in Petaling Jaya where the three policemen seized his desktop computer and the monitor.

Following this, information was scarce about Tan's whereabouts. He was initially thought to be held at the Bukit Aman police headquarters and a small protest against his detention was held outside.

Only until about 11pm, an anonymous tipoff led Tan's lawyers and parents to the Dang Wangi police station where they managed to get a glimpse of him.

The cat-and-mouse game ensued again this morning, but based on another tipoff, Tan's lawyers manage to catch up with him at the Jalan Duta Court Complex, where police were in the process of obtaining the remand order.

One of Tan's lawyers, R Sivarasa, alleged that there was an attempt by the investigating police officers not to inform them of the remand proceedings.

"He was lucky because (human rights lawyer) P Uthayakumar was in court to attend to another proceeding. Uthayakumar spotted him and later informed me," said Sivarasa.

But court police provided assistance

He said that the court police also played a role by informing the police investigating team that Tan's lawyers were on the way.

"Those interventions help frustrate the police team to do the remand proceedings behind our backs," he added.

According to international rights group Amnesty International, the OSA is a particular draconian Act which provides "vaguely worded definitions" of what constitutes an official secret.

"It gives the authorities wide powers to curb and impose penalties on the unauthorised publication of any information in the hands of the government, no matter how insignificant or whether such information is already in the public domain."