Aziz Bari ‘absolutely unafraid’ of jail

The sedition suspect keeps silent during police questioning.

SABAK BERNAM: Police today interrogated University of Selangor law professor Abdul Aziz Bari over allegedly seditious comments reported in two articles published by The Malaysian Insider.

The constitutional law expert is the second academic to be picked up under the much criticised sedition dragnet. He follows University of Malaya lecturer Azmi Sharom, who was charged under the Sedition Act early last month.

The first of the two offending articles quoted him as saying that the 1992 Declaration of Constitutional Principles obligated the Sultan of Selangor to appoint PKR President Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the Selangor Menteri Besar (MB).

According to the second article, Aziz, speaking at a public forum, said the Sultan was wrong in demanding that Pakatan Rakyat nominate more candidates for the MB’s post, adding that “only God, not the Sultan, was infallible and has absolute power.”

More than 100 police reports were reportedly lodged against the professor, who announced today that he was “absolutely unafraid” to be jailed under the Sedition Act, saying his role was merely to answer questions at the forum according to his knowledge of the constitution.

He was accompanied to the Sabah Bernam police headquarters by his lawyer, Afiq Noor of Lawyers for Liberty. He was questioned for one and a half hours.

His lawyer disclosed that among the questions the police asked was, “Do you agree that the Sultan cannot be compared with God?”

According to The Malaysian Insider, Aziz opted not to answer any question during the interrogation so as not to incriminate himself.

The investigation is ongoing.

Depending on the outcome of Azmi’s constitutional challenge against the Sedition Act, Aziz’s situation could change.

Azmi earlier today won the right to take his challenge to the High Court. He is contending that the colonial era law is not constitutional because it was not passed by Parliament.