UM’s Azmi Sharom charged with sedition over remarks made on Perak constitutional crisis

Universiti Malaya law professor Azmi Sharom arrives at Jalan Duta Court with his lawyer Gobind Singh today. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Afif Abd Halim, September 2, 2014.Universiti Malaya law professor Azmi Sharom today claimed trial in the Sessions Court over his remarks on the Perak constitutional crisis.‎

He is charged over an article titled "Take Perak crisis route for speedy end to Selangor impasse, Pakatan told" which was published in an online news portal on August 14.

He is said to have committed the offence at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters on August 15.

Azmi, who is Universiti Malaya academic staff association head, is the first academic to be hauled up by Putrajaya and charged under the archaic law which critics have called to be repealed.

The 45-year-old faced a principle charge of uttering a seditious statement, an offence under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948.

He was also slapped with an alternative charge of publishing the seditious statement, an offence under Section 4(1)(c) of the same law.

Both offences carry a jail term of up to three years or maximum RM5,000 fine or both if found guilty.

Deputy public prosecutor Suhaimi Ibrahim proposed bail of RM5,000 in one surety. Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, who appeared for Azmi, said his client accepted the offer.

Sessions judge Zainol Rashid Hussain fixed October 3 for mention.

Over the past week, a number of opposition politicians – Padang Serai MP N. Surendran (PKR), Shah Alam MP and PAS central committee member Khalid Samad, and Seri Delima assemblyman R.S.N. Rayer (DAP) – have all been charged with sedition.

PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli was charged with threatening peace for his comments against Umno members while former Perak menteri besar and Changkat Jering assemblyman Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin was charged with criminal defamation for a statement he had allegedly made two years ago.

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok (DAP) and Batu MP Tian Chua (PKR) are also facing trial for sedition.

All these elected representatives risk losing their public office if the court imposes a fine of RM2,000 or more, or at least one year’s jail term.

The slew of sedition charges comes two years after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak first promised to repeal the Sedition Act in 2012.

Najib in July 2013, announced for the second time his intention to repeal the 66-year-old act when he was interviewed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), saying it would be replaced by a new National Harmony Act.

But critics of the act have observed that since Najib’s announcement, an increasing number of opposition politicians are being charged for sedition.

In a statement on Saturday, the Prime Minister's Office said the government would repeal the Sedition Act and replace it with the National Harmony Bill as pledged, adding that it was currently in drafting stage. – September 2, 2014.