Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: Sedition charges against cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque and others for criticising the government and the judiciary should be dropped since Parliament has amended the law, lawyers said.

They said abandoning prosecution would show the public that the government was not vindictive, although the charge under the old law was still valid.

Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen said the previous legislation was still good law as the amendment passed by Parliament had yet to be gazetted. “But the prosecution must drop charges against those who attacked the government and for being critical of the administration of justice,” Paulsen said.

He was responding to whether the charges against the cartoonist, better known as Zunar,  and other politicians and activists were valid following amendments to the law last month.

On April 28, the Dewan Negara passed the Sedition Bill (Amendment) after a heated debate.

Paulsen said the new amendments had not come into law as the entire legislative process had not been completed. “It has to get the royal assent and later be gazetted before coming into force,” he said.

Lawyer M Visvanathan said any existing charges under the sedition law are absolutely legal even if the new amendments had come into force. “All were charged before the legislature passed amendment to the Sedition Act. The prosecutor will not run afoul of the law.

“However, in good faith the prosecutor must drop the old charges if the new amendments no longer make it an offence for being critical of the government and the judiciary.”

On April 3, Zunar was slapped with nine sedition charges over his tweet on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy conviction, believed to be the highest faced by an individual under the colonial-era law. Zunar claimed trial to the charges and has been freed on RM22,500 bail.

The popular cartoonist was arrested hours after his tweet, and spent the night at the Dang Wangi police lock-up.

So far, about 30 opposition politicians, lawyers, academicians, students and other individuals have been either charged or investigated under the sedition law.

Universiti Malaya law lecturer Dr Azmi Sharom has challenged the constitutionality of the sedition law and the Federal Court has now reserved judgment. — The Malaysian Insider

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 26, 2015.

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