KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian prosecutors charged a high-profile law professor with sedition yesterday for an opinion he voiced on a political crisis that occurred five years ago, extending a recent crackdown on dissent from opposition politicians to academia.
Lawyers said the charge against Azmi Sharom, who writes a regular newspaper column, could have a chilling effect on freedom of speech as the government wavers on its pledges to expand civil liberties.
Four opposition politicians have been charged and another convicted this year under the Sedition Act, a relic of the British colonial era intended to keep a tight lid on racial tensions and social unrest in the multiethnic country. Four sedition charges have been pressed in the past nine days.
“There clearly now appears to be an attempt to create an environment of fear and self-censorship such that people now no longer take it upon themselves to comment on what is going on,” said Andrew Khoo, cochairperson of the Malaysian Bar Council’s human rights committee.
Khoo and Azmi’s lawyer Gobind Singh said they could not recall the last time an academic was charged under the 1948 law. REUTERS
