Blogger jailed 2 years for causing fear during Sabah’s Sulu intrusion

The Kota Kinabalu Magistrate Court found blogger Milosuam guilty over inciting fear in the people with an article titled 'Maklumat Sulit: Pendatang Asing Bakal Cetus Huru-Hara di Sabah', published on 6 March, 2013. – Reuters pic, January 19, 2015.

A Kota Kinabalu Magistrate court has found blogger Yusuf al-Siddique Suratman – better known as Milosuam – guilty of causing fear among the public during the Sulu intrusion in Sabah last year, even as his lawyers protested against his trial which they said was unfair from the beginning, because he could not be represented by the counsel he wanted.

Yusuf was sentenced to two years' jail, which is the maximum punishment, but has been granted a stay pending appeal.

He was charged in June last year under Section 505 under the Penal Code, for causing fear among the people through a blog posting about measures undertaken by security forces during the incursion by armed Sulu men in Lahad Datu on the eastern coast of Sabah, which has been vulnerable to kidnappings by militants in the southern Philippines.

The blogger had published, on his blog (milosuam.blogspot.com), a document titled "Borang Utusan Polis" under the posting "Maklumat Sulit: Pendatang Asing Bakal Cetus Huru-Hara di Sabah".

The posting was made on March 6, 2013 and Yusuf was detained in Kuala Lumpur 2 months later.

Human rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) highlighted that Yusuf was charged in Sabah despite the fact that he had written the article in Kuala Lumpur.

"His trial in Kota Kinabalu was condemned as arbitrary and unnecessary," LFL said in a statement today.

LFL co-founder Eric Paulsen had previously lamented that Yusuf being charged in Kota Kinabalu meant that the group could not represent him in court.

"Lawyers from the Peninsula are unable to appear before the courts in Sabah. This situation placed our client in a precarious position, forcing him to find new lawyers in Sabah," he had said last year.

In February last year, about 200 armed followers of the Sulu sultanate came to Lahad Datu to revive the sultanate's claim to Malaysia’s easternmost state.

The intrusion led to a standoff between the sultan’s followers and Malaysian authorities, leading to the death of 52 Filipinos and 8 Malaysian policemen.

- TMI