Human rights NGO Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) has urged the government to stop "selective persecution" targeting the organisation and focus on curbing crime instead.

NONE The organisation views the police investigation into Suaram's fundraising dinner on July 19 as a "waste of time and taxpayers' money", Suaram's executive director E Nalini ( right ) said in a statement issued today.

Suaram, which was probed by the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) and Registrar of Societies (ROS) for allegedly failing to declare foreign funding last year, came under the microscope of authorities again after organising an Ops Scorpene fundraising dinner.

PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, who was one of the speakers at the dinner, this morning became the third person to be hauled up by police, investigating Suaram for sedition for organising the dinner.

Nurul later said after being questioned at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters this morning that she was unsure whether she was a witness or a suspect.

'Investigation is politically motivated'

Her session follows the questioning of prominent lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu and Suaram secretariat member Cynthia Gabriel over the past week.

Both Americk and Cynthia have been informed that they are being investigated under the Sedition Act.

"Suaram strongly condemns the ongoing harassment against members of Suaram as well as all those who attended the dinner.

"We strongly believe that this investigation is politically motivated and is purely a form of harassment and intimidation against Suaram and its members for exposing information related to the ongoing Scorpene case in the French court," Nalini said.

"That the police do not seem to making the fight against crime, and the safety of the public, their number one priority is extremely worrying," she added.

The police are investigating alleged defamation against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in the speeches made at the dinner, which was organised to raise funds for the Scorpene deal trial in French courts.

The trial is expected to shed more light into the role of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shariibuu, who was brutally murdered in Shah Alam in 2006, in the Scorpene submarine deal.