Police raided the home of blogger Chan Lilian in Penang and carted away her 27-inch iMac and a modem yesterday as part of their investigations into a tweet she sent last month.

Chan, a videographer, is being investigated under Section 4 (1) of the Sedition Act for her tweet message, as well as Section 27 (5) of the Police Act for allegedly participating in the July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally in Kuala Lumpur.

azlan If convicted, Chan faces a jail term of up to three years, a fine of not more than RM5,000, or both.

Yesterday, four police officers from the cyber crime unit in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, questioned Chan for about an hour at the Jalan Pattani (northeast district) police headquarters in Penang.

They then went to her house in Tanjung Bungah and spent two hours searching for "evidence".

They also combed through eight files on her computer, took snapshots of her Twitter account and drew a diagram of her work area.

The police team, led by investigating officer ASP Ridzuan Ibrahim left about 8.30pm with Chan's iMac and a modem.

Asked by journalists about the seizure of Chan's prized iMac, Ridzuan replied, "No comment!" before slipping into the police car.

Chan was accompanied by lawyer Tham Shien Shyong during her three-hour ordeal.

"This is the price I have to iMac computer seized lillian chan tweet twitter penang car pay for expressing my thoughts," a calm Chan told reporters later outside her house.

"I maintain that I have no intention of inciting anyone - my tweet is restricted (to 900 members) but its privacy has been abused," added the mother of four.

Chan, who is a temporary staff with a Penang government unit, vowed that she would not give up tweeting as she has the right to freedom of expression.

"It is regrettable that this has happened. I tweeted as an individual and a blogger, and this has nothing to do with where I work (or my employer)," she said.

900 members in Twitter account

On June 29 night, 10 days before the Bersih rally, Chan had sent out a tweet suggesting that Christians march to protest their "persecution".

This resulted in a police report   being l odged against her by Blog House secretary Tony Yew.

In his report, Yew alleged that Chan's tweet contained seditious elements, which directly incited Christians to go against the government.

Yew, who was one of Chan's 900 members in her Twitter account, said that as a Christian, he believed the tweet message has "the ability to threaten the security of the nation".

He had also wrote in his blog that Chan's tweet was re-tweeted and he was disappointed there were people out there happy to spread the word.

Chan, a former Malaysiakini citizen journalist, said her Twitter account was restricted to her followers, but she had unknowingly added Yew.

She said she did not made any reference to Bersih 2.0 or the government in her tweet, in which she said she "thought" that Christians should march.

She said she did not promote Bersih 2.0, she did not attend the event nor had she used the yellow badge that symbolises support for the outlawed coalition on her Twitter avatar.

CM expresses support for Chan

In an immediate response to the incident, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng expressed support for Chan, saying the state government would defend her in her on- going case.

Lim questioned whether Chan had been targetted by the police because of her work in the Chief Minister’s Office.

He said he was upset that Chan’s personal tweet has resulted in a police inquiry.

He felt that it was not fair to target her as Twitter is a social media, and a space where citizens vent their anger or share their views about the current political scenario of the country.

“We stand by her because I feel that if my officer is disturbed, it would be difficult for us to carry out our work for the rakyat, especially Penangites,” he told reporters at a press conference today.

Lim, who is DAP national secretary-general, said he was suspicious of the motives behind the police probe into her tweet.

“Everyone has their own and sometimes extraordinary views when they tweet. It’s just like a conversation between friends,” he said.

“It is merely 140 words which include short forms and jokes, but if this can be probed, then thousands of other tweets should be probed, too,” he added.

“This is a clear case of double standards,” he said.