Sri Muda rep fails in bid to challenge Sedition Act

The PKR assemblyman filed the summons on Sept 15 last year, demanding the court to declare Section 3 and 4 of the Sedition Act as null and void.

KUALA LUMPUR: Sri Muda assemblyman Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei failed in his bid today to challenge the constitutionality of the Sedition Act 1948.

High Court Judge Asmabi Mohamad dismissed the originating summons filed by the assemblyman with a cost of RM2,000 after hearing the submissions from his counsel, Andrew Yong, and senior federal counsel Alice Loke Yee Ching, who represented the government.

The court also dismissed Mat Shuhaimi’s application with the cost of RM4,000 to postpone the hearing of his sedition charge pending appeal to the Federal Court.
Asmabi said the application for the postponement was an abuse of the court process and was outside the court’s jurisdiction.

The 47-year-old PKR assemblyman filed the summons on Sept 15 last year, demanding the court to declare Section 3 and 4 of the Sedition Act, in which he was being charged, as null and void.

In his affidavit, he said both sections, when read as a whole violated the fundamental liberty of freedom of speech guaranteed by Article 10(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution.

On Feb 7, 2011, Mat Shuhaimi was charged at the Sessions Court in Shah Alam for posting an allegedly seditious article in his blog,srimuda.blogspot.com, on the appointment of Mohd Khusrin Munawi as the new Selangor state secretary.

He was alleged to have committed the offence at Pusat Khidmat Rakyat, Jalan Anggerik Vanilla, Kota Kemuning in Shah Alam on Dec 30, 2010.

On April 1, 2011, he filed a notice of motion at the High Court in Shah Alam, seeking to have his sedition charge struck out on grounds that the Sedition Act was unconstitutional as it conflicted with Article 10 of the Federal Constitution which guaranteed freedom of speech.

On Aug 26, 2011, however, the court dismissed his application to strike out his sedition charge.

Mat Shuhaimi’s appeal to the Court of Appeal was also dismissed on May 17, last year.

– BERNAMA