Student activist leader Adam Adli Abdul Halim, convicted of sedition, received a lighter sentence of a RM5,000 fine instead of one year in prison by the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.
Adam was previously sentenced to a one-year jail term for being found in violation of Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948, following remarks he made on May 13, 2013, calling for the Malaysian public to oust Prime Minister Najib Razak and his Barisan Nasional administration.
Presiding judge Abdul Karim Abdul Rahman upheld the decision of the Sessions Court in finding Adam guilty of sedition, but ruled that a year in prison was “excessive”, as the student activist’s public comments did not result in “negative reactions” towards the Federal Government.
“And taking into account public importance in this case I feel that the sentence by the Sessions Court was excessive. I replace the sentence with a fine of RM5,000 in default of six months,” he said.
While acknowledging that Adam voiced his opinion as a form of criticism towards the Malaysian government, the judg said that even criticism can be construed as being seditious in nature.
“As I said before, even with criticism, not all criticism is clean, they can be seditious.”
Adam’s lawyer, Latheefa Koya, told The Malay Mail Online‘s Mayuri Mei Lin that convicting a Malaysian of sedition for criticisng the government underscored the inherent danger for the Sedition Act to be misused.
“The fact that a person can be convicted for bringing up criticism against the government or election fraud is a bad precedent and I think the Sedition Act has to go,” she said.
