Another two Malaysian opposition officials were charged Wednesday with rioting during a by-election in November -- an offence punishable by up to two years' jail and a fine.
This brought to nine the number of opposition supporters hauled to court for the same offence over an incident during the November 29 Lunas by-election in the northern state of Kedah.
Mohamad Ezam Mohamad Noor and Mohamed Azmin Ali, both former aides to jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, were charged in a magistrates' court in Kedah, the Bernama news agency reported.
No plea was recorded, it said. They were both released on bail and the case would be mentioned again February 18.
Of the seven earlier charged, four were from the National Justice Party (Keadilan) headed by Anwar's wife which won a shock victory at Lunas, and three from the allied Parti Islam SeMalaysia.
Mohamad Ezam, who is also facing a separate charge under the Official Secrets Act, and Azmin Ali are also senior Keadilan officials.
All the charges apparently relate to an incident during which opposition officials blocked bus-loads of government supporters from entering Lunas.
Keadilan claimed they were "phantom" voters brought in from other states to vote fraudulently. But the ruling National Front coalition claimed they were merely government supporters.
Keadilan deputy president Chandra Muzaffar has called the riot charges "absurd" since there had been no media reports of any rioting in the town on polling day.
He said opposition supporters had merely asked the bus drivers to stop and redirected them to the police station. Police themselves later directed the buses out of the constituency, he added -- KUALA LUMPUR (AFP)
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