As GE-13 looms, Appeals Crt overturns Karpal’s acquittal on Perak Sultan sedition

As expected, little has changed in the Malaysian judicial system despite a new Chief Justice and Prime Minister Najib Razak's grandiose pronouncements of moderation and reform.

With the 13th general election looming and Perak state widely expected to be re-taken by the Pakatan Rakyat, the Court of Appeal overturned the Kuala Lumpur High Court's 2010 decision to acquit lawyer Karpal Singh on a charge of sedition against the Sultan of Perak.

"Malaysia a long way to go to become a country with true rule of law," Wong Ho Leng, the DAP MP for Sibu said on his Twitter.

Money politics

Karpal is of course the DAP chairman, and also the Bukit Gelugor Member of Parliament.

The Perak palace has been accused of taking bribes in the form of huge business deals including stakes in the multi-billion ringgit Kuala Lumpur MRT project from Najib's government so as to side the BN during a 2009 coup d'etat against the then Pakatan Rakyat-led state governmnt.

On Friday, the Appeals court also ordered that the case be remitted back to the High Court for Karpal Singh to enter his defence. It also fixed February 9 for mention in the High Court.

Inn an immediate reaction, Karpal Singh said he would appeal the decision in the Federal Court. On June 11, 2010, the High Court had discharged and acquitted him without calling for his defence.

When delivering his decision at the end of the prosecution's case, High Court judicial commissioner Azman Abdullah said that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case against the DAP chairman.

The court had found that the prosecution had failed to prove the gist needed under Section 3(1) of the Sedition Act on a link or consequence of a press statement issued by Karpal that lead to the tendency to incite or to incite hatred, insult and disloyalty to the Ruler.

The court then had been of the view that the accused was giving his opinion by referring to provisions in the Perak state constitution and law provisions from court decisions that were supplied to all the newsmen who attended the press conference.

"The Perak case is alive all over again, thanks to the Court of Appeal. Excitement all the way to election," Zaid Ibrahim, president of KITA party, said on Twitter.

Malaysia Chronicle