Malaysian police search opposition paper's office

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 (Reuters) Malaysian police searched the offices of an opposition newspaper today after the government accused opposition politicians of breaking the law by revealing the contents of a highway concession.

Malaysia's opposition parties, who struggle to be heard through the largely pro-government media, have held several street protests against recent highway-toll increases and say the leaked concession guarantees excessive profits.

An opposition official said two policemen did brief searches of the office of Suara Keadilan, a fortnightly paper published by the Keadilan party of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, as well as the home of Tian Chua, a party spokesman.

''They did it very quickly,'' Ginie Lim, a Keadilan party spokeswoman, told Reuters, adding that the policemen had a court order to hunt for a copy of the disputed highway-toll agreement.

''For both places they only took five to 10 minutes to look around, to check, look at mailboxes and then they left. They couldn't find anything.'' A police spokesman referred inquiries to a more senior officer, who could not be reached for comment.

Government ministers have said the leaking of the concession agreement infringed the Official Secrets Act, a law designed to keep government papers confidential. Communicating or receiving official secrets is punishable by up to seven years in jail.

''This has nothing to do with national security,'' Lim said.

''It's as simple as building a road or a drainage system ...

It's just infrastructure.'' Earlier today, police questioned Chua and three other opposition leaders, said Lim and the independent news Web site, Malaysiakini.com.

The others were Keadilan treasurer Khalid Ibrahim; Ronnie Liu, an official of the Chinese-backed Democratic Action Party; and Hatta Ramli, treasurer of Islamist group Parti Islam se Malaysia, Malaysiakini.com added.

Newspaper Suara Keadilan has a staff of about six journalists and a circulation of about 40,000, Lim said.

REUTERS DKA PM1806