Tian Chua freed of sedition charge, court rules report attributed to him was unclear

Batu MP Tian Chua leaving the court after his acquittal. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Zhafri Azmi, November 14, 2014.

The Sessions Court today acquitted Batu MP Tian Chua of a sedition charge over seditious remarks linking the government and Umno in the Lahad Datu intrusion last year.

In acquitting Tian Chua without calling for his defence, judge Norsharidah Awang said the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against him.

"The prosecution was only referring to an article written by a reporter based on a telephone interview.

"It is unfair to attribute that article to the accused because he was not the maker of the report," she said.

Norsharidah said the reporter's notes of the interview were not verbatim when she spoke to Tian Chua.

"The reporter only took down key points. What was published also did not fully reflect the interview with the accused," she said,  adding that this was not corroborative evidence to implicate him in the charge.

Tian Chua, who is also PKR vice-president, was charged last year with making a statement that the militant intrusion in Lahad Datu was a planned conspiracy by Umno to divert attention and frighten the people.

He was alleged to have committed the offence at Fraser Business Park, Jalan Metro Pudu, off Jalan Yew in Kuala Lumpur at about 11am on March 1 last year.

He was charged under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948, which provides for a jail term of three years or a maximum fine of RM5,000, or both, upon conviction.

The prosecution had called three witnesses, namely former Keadilan Daily.Com reporter Siti Nooraishah Geoffery, former Johor Baru Umno Youth vice-head Syed Amirrudin Syed Jaffar, who had lodged a complaint over an article written by the reporter regarding the case, and investigating officer Assistant Superintendent Airy Zaidi Nordin.

Siti Nooraishah had told the court that the contents of her article were based on a telephone conversation she had with Tian Chua.

She said she did not write the article word for word but wrote what was important.

"I did edit his (Tian Chua's) statements... just a bit to ensure proper articulation but what was said by the MP was captured in the article," she said.

She said that only the words "tembak-menembak" (shootout) were not written by her but were added by Norasikin Samsi, the sub-editor of the portal.

Under cross-examination by Tian Chua's defence counsel Latheefa Koya, Siti Nooraishah said articles were cleaned up by the editor or sub-editor but only minor editing was done on her interview with Chua before it was uploaded.

She said reporters from the portal would check back on statements made by anyone but she did not do so with Tian Chua.

- TMI