http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/sa-senator-nick-xenophon-in-custody-in-malaysia-over-meetings-with-pro-democracy-mps-i/story-e6frea83-1226579351300
EXCLUSIVE: Independent Senator Nick Xenophon is being detained under police guard and awaiting deportation from Malaysia as an "enemy of the state", over a series of planned meetings with pro-democracy MPs in Kuala Lumpur.
Xenophon landed in KL this morning but has been under armed guard for the past two hours. He is being held in an interrogation room at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, which has a series of adjoining cells holding female prisoners. He has been told he is not allowed to make telephone calls and is not even allowed to go to the bathroom without a police guard.
Xenophon managed to make a call to The Sunday Mail when he was left unattended in the interrogation room.
"I am effectively a prisoner here," Xenophon said. "I'm being held in an area with all these holding cells which are full of women. They have basically told me I am an enemy of the state. They are trying to get me on the next plane out of here and back home."
Xenophon managed to use his contacts to get a text message to the Australian High Commission in KL and is awaiting a visit from High Commissioner Miles Cooper.
After he landed this morning the South Australian anti-pokies Senator joined the customs queue but was told there were "irregularities" with his passport. He was then taken away by the immigration officials to the guarded area where he was told that the Malaysian authorities knew of his stance on human rights in Malaysia and his itinerary for this week.
Xenophon was scheduled to meet with pro-democracy and Opposition MPs - yet oddly he had also been granted a meeting with a senior Government MP, the Special Minister of State.
"I was even meeting members of the Government, I mean, the whole situation is ridiculous, we are meant to be the closest of friends with Malaysia," he said. "We are meant to be having a people swap deal on asylum seekers but so far it looks like the only person being swapped is me."
Xenophon believes that a recent article he wrote for Fairfax newspapers in January, which was critical of human rights in Malaysia, may have emboldened the authorities to deny him entry. Last year he was also unwittingly caught up in a 25,000-strong democracy protest in KL where he was tear-gassed.
