Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has finally returned the belongings of a student which were confiscated under questionable circumstances two weeks ago.

First-year student Yee Yang Yang, 19, was asked to claim his 13 affects which included a laptop computer, high-end mobile phone and a portable music player from the university's security unit yesterday.

The items were confiscated on Sept 15 by UPM security officials during a spot check at Yee's hostel, purportedly over a stolen mobile phone.

Yee was subsequently interrogated for several hours by the security officials and had his affects carted away without any form of written notice.

"I'm just happy I got my things back in good condition," Yee told Malaysiakini.

But he was still unhappy about the ordeal and is exploring the possibility of taking action against the concerned parties soon.

'Crackdown on students'

Previously, Yee had lodged three police reports on the matter because he believed that the confiscation was illegal.

Initially, UPM vice-chancellor Nik Mustapha R Abdullah defended his security officers by alleging that Yee's affects were confiscated because it contained documents produced by 'unregistered' organisations and that his laptop contained pornographic material.

Following this, the security department conceded that the confiscation procedures were flawed and promised that Yee could have his belongings returned. All the confiscated items were eventually placed in the care of the Sri Serdang police.

Yee claimed that he was a victim of a university crackdown against students deemed to be involved in "anti-establishment" student politics.

The incident happened two weeks prior to campus poll nomination period, which traditionally sees a bitter rivalry between "anti-establishment" students and university-backed "pro-establishment" students.