Police have detained the man owning the Facebook account that insulted the Sultan of Johor and the state monarchy.

Director of the commercial crime investigation department Syed Ismail Syed Azizan said the 40-year-old man was arrested in Kuala Lumpur last Nov 29.

He told reporters that a task force was formed in August after several complaints were received about the Facebook page, which the man was believed to have created after the death of Sultan Iskandar Almarhum Sultan Ismail of Johor last January.

Police seized from the man five cellphones and PDAs, five laptops and a wireless router.

Syed Ismail said that investigations showed that the man, who is from Kuala Lumpur, was self-employed and was driven by certain ideals.

Not linked to any political group

The Facebook account had the e-mail address pendekar.bentan@gmail.com but the man had stolen the identity of a user who had not signed out.

Syed Ismail said the suspect, a former student of a local university, belonged to a group promoting Islam as a way of life, but he operated the website independently.

"His motive in creating the account was to promote his personal ideals, and investigations showed that he was not associated with any political group," Syed Ismail said.

 A report has been sent to the Attorney-General's Office for further action.

- Bernama