The man whose alleged article was published in PAS organ Harakah which has resulted in the arrests of the tabloid's editor and printer is bracing himself for arrest.

KeADILan deputy president Chandra Muzaffar's article, which appeared on the Aug 2 edition of Harakah last year, accused the media for working in concert with the judiciary in the persecution of sacked deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. This has led to the arrests of Harakah editor Zulkifli Sulong and printer Chia Lim Thye.

"The government could not persecute the case against me in court, therefore it has now involved Zulkifli instead," said Chandra when contacted by malaysiakini today.

During Anwar's sodomy trial last August, the court sent a show-cause notice to Chandra on why he should not be cited for contempt.

The show-cause notice was issued at the behest of Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah who drew the court's attention to a media statement purportedly written by Chandra titled "Confession and Conspiracy" which appeared on the Internet on July 31.

The last paragraph of the statement said: "It is a shame that elements in the police force, in the Attorney-General's Chambers, in the courts and in the media are prepared to be subservient tools in this massive conspiracy hatched by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his cohorts."

However, the case was later set aside by the court after it was determined that Chandra could not be proved to have been written the Internet version of the article.

When asked about the possibility of him being arrested, he said that he had yet to receive any warrant of arrest from the police.

Chandra argued that the recent arrests was clearly an effort by the government to punish the opposition by making use of the police.

"This attempt clearly illustrates the government's cowardice in facing the opposition leaders and it is striving to restrict their growing clout by pressing charges against them. If found guilty and fined more than RM2,000 or sentenced to more than two years, party representatives would be barred from contesting the next general elections," he added

Meanwhile, Zaharuddin Abd Rahman, the personal assistant to PAS' Parit Buntar MP Hassan Mohd Ali, told malaysiakini that more opposition leaders would be rounded up as investigations were still being carried out by the police.

He added that the police had made an issue out of a speech by Hassan in Kedah recently. According to him, Hassan had said in his speech that he regretted the Prime Minister's extravagant desire in the construction of the "Putrajaya palace" costing RM200 million. This, he said, could land Hassan in court.

However, Zaharuddin said that no further arrest warrants had been issued to PAS leaders.

KeADILan vice-president Chua Tian Chang said the opposition would not sit back and allow the government to turn them into scapegoats for the ruling parties' internal problems.

"The leadership of Barisan Alternatif will monitor the developments very closely. If the situation worsen in the next few days, we will call an emergency meeting among reformasi activities to discuss the launching of a nationwide mass mobilisation to defend our basic rights," he said.