KUALA LUMPUR: Ten people dressed in ninja-style garb have been detained after they arrived at Malaysia’s royal palace in a bizarre attempt to claim the throne, police said yesterday.
The unarmed group, reported by local media to be suspected followers of a Malaysian Muslim figure claiming royal descent, were stopped by police guards in the confrontations early Monday morning at the palace in Kuala Lumpur. A police official called the claim by the group’s leader “unbelievable and out of the ordinary”. “His claim doesn’t make sense. (He) claimed to have a letter of appointment from the Philippines,” Kuala Lumpur police official Ku Chin Wah told reporters.
Ku refused to identify the detainees or their leader from the northern state of Kedah, pending investigations.
He said they were being investigated under a statute that forbids challenging the king’s authority, which can bring life imprisonment, and for illegal assembly.
The eight detained males and two females included a child aged 11, he said. Ku was earlier quoted by Malaysian media as saying they were armed only with flags and documents purportedly laying out the royal claim.
The Star newspaper said one of the documents called for the formation of a three-million-strong army to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi, a prophesied redeemer of Islam. Three members were executed for planning a “holy war” while 16 others were given life sentences for treason. AFP
