KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian court convicted a prominent student activist of sedition yesterday and sentenced him to a year in prison in a ruling swiftly denounced by rights groups as part of a “sustained assault” by the government on free expression.
Adam Adli was charged with sedition in May 2013 after urging protests against election results that reaffirmed the longtime government’s grip on power.
“Guilty,” Adam tweeted yesterday as the ruling was read out inside a Kuala Lumpur courtroom.
“Having different opinion is apparently a crime now according to our dearest prosecutor.”
The ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) has sparked growing outrage over its use of the 1940s British colonial-era Sedition Act.
Prime Minister Najib Razak had promised in 2011 to repeal the law -- calling it a relic of a “bygone era” -- hoping to placate mounting public pressure for an end to authoritarian abuses.
But the law has been used repeatedly since last year’s elections, accelerating in recent weeks with several government opponents charged for comments widely deemed by leaders in the legal community as innocuous.
More than a dozen people are known to have been charged with sedition since the May 2013 elections. Most of those cases are still pending.
Convictions, however, are relatively rare. AFP
