Jailed leader’s daughter held in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian police arrested the eldest daughter of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for alleged sedition Monday, a move slammed by critics as a clampdown on dissent.

Nurul Izzah Anwar was detained to assist police in their investigation of an opposition rally and also for making “contemptuous remarks that those in the judiciary system had sold their souls to the devil,” national Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement.

A lawmaker and vice president of her father’s People’s Justice Party, Nurul Izzah was detained because of a speech she made last week in Parliament, said Fahmi Fadzil, the party’s communications director.

He said the arrest was “ridiculous and outrageous,” noting that lawmakers have immunity over comments made in Parliament. Fahmi said the move was intended to silence the opposition after Anwar was jailed for five years last month when he lost a final appeal against a sodomy conviction.