The webmaster of popular political website Malaysia Today, Raja Petra Kamarudin, was today questioned for almost eight hours by the police over comments and articles which appeared in his site.

Raja Petra, 57, had arrived at the Dang Wangi district police station in Jalan Tun HS Lee at about 11am this morning, accompanied by his wife Marina Lee Abdullah, 51. Also present were PKR information chief Tian Chua and some supporters.

He only re-emerged from the police station with a broad smile at about 7.30pm. He gave his waiting wife a peck on the cheek as a dozen of reporters sought his comments.

Raja Petra was summoned to the police station early this morning following a police report which was filed by Umno information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib on Monday.

Taib had told reporters that Raja Petra had published postings and articles that were disrespectful to the King and Islam.

Talking to reporters after his marathon session with the police, Raja Petra said that he was asked to reveal the identity of people who had posted comments on his site.

He said that he was shown a list of 12 comments which were attached to the police report made by Umno and wanted to know who the writers were.

What insult?

Raja Petra said he had intended defend himself against accusations that he had insulted Islam and the King.

"I brought my family tree (about his royal lineage) and a copy of the Quran. I wanted them to show how I insulted the Agung and Islam."

Raja Petra, who is a nephew of the late sultan of Selangor Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, claimed to be a "buddy" of Agung Mizan Zainal Abidin.

"They said no. They said my interrogation was not about my articles but about comments (left by readers). I refuse to talk about the comments... because I would only talk about what I wrote and not what other people wrote," he said.

"How am I to know who? We have 20,000 news items and five million comments from bloggers coming from 146 countries.

"Although 70% of these are comments from Malaysians, how are we to know who they are. I don't know who they are and neither do I want to know."

Raja Petra also accused Umno of setting up a special team of 'cybertroopers' under Sports and Youth Minister Azalina Othman Said to post seditious comments on his website.

"There are about 25 of them, paid RM2,750 a month to raid and invade malaysia-today.net. They flood my website with about 500 to 600 unwanted and sensitive comments daily and I lose sleep every night cleaning this mess up by deleting them from my site," he said.

Raja Petra revealed that he was asked by the police to sign about 30-pages of caution statement taken from him today.

"My closing statement was - Malaysia Today is not a Malaysian website. We're not based locally and we do not come under Malaysian law. I refuse to be dictated by any Malaysian laws," he added defiantly.

According to his wife ( photo, left ), a police officer had telephoned Raja Petra at about 8am this morning asking him to go to the police station.

Dang Wangi district police chief ACP Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman confirmed that Raja Petra was called to give a statement connected to articles published in Malaysia Today on July 11.

Raja Petra told malaysiakini yesterday that he was puzzled over the police report as he had not published anything on July 11.

Also present at the police station were a handful of bloggers who wanted to show solidarity to Raja Petra.

Gov't issues warning

Yesterday Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz vowed that the government would not hesitate to use existing laws against errant bloggers.

They included the Internal Security Act - which allows detention without trial - the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 121b of the Penal Code.

According to Nazri, the government had been patient for a long time and now is the time for it to act.

"I want to issue a warning that the time has come for us to take action against them (bloggers who make disparaging statements). We have the right and we will do it. We have been very patient," he was quoted as saying by Bernama when winding up debate on the Electronic Government Activities Bill 2007 in the Dewan Negara here.

Watch the seven-minute video here.