SSKM volunteers’ application dismissed

KOTA KINABALU: The High Court here yesterday dismissed the application of four volunteers of the Sabah Sarawak Keluar Malaysia (SSKM) movement to have their case heard there.

Justice Datuk Nurchaya Hj Arshad delivered her verdict on the case of Azrie Situ, 24, Jemmy Liku Markus Situ, 32, Erick Jack William, 28, and Joseph Kolis, 29, who were charged with propagating the secession of Sabah from Malaysia.

In her judgement, Nurchaya held that the complex legal defence was just speculative as it only involved the possession of documents purportedly containing seditious words, which the prosecution has to prove.

Therefore, said Nurchaya, the Sessions Court judge should be more than capable of handling the matter.

In his submission, counsel Tengku Fuad Tengku Ahmad for the applicants highlighted that under Section 3(2) of the Sedition Act 1948, a publication does not have a seditious tendency simply because it is inclined to point out errors or defects in any government or constitution and to persuade the subjects of any ruler or government to attempt to procure by lawful means the alteration of any matter in the territory of such government, as by law established.

Fuad further submitted that none of the words highlighted by the respondent, nor elsewhere in the publications, is there any advocacy of the use of force, which is a traditional element of the offence of sedition.

Earlier on October 7, deputy public prosecutor Azreezi Nordin had submitted a list of words claimed to be seditious, which would be mainly argued by the prosecution during trial.

Azreezi elaborated that it is the prosecution’s stand that the documents, when read as a whole, contain seditious words and meanings.

Some of the words highlighted by the prosecution in the first document (in translation) were: “To collect 300,000 signatures of the people of Sabah and Sarawak to be presented to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) and the United Nations that the states of Sabah and Sarawak are no longer interested to remain as part of the Malaysian Federation with Malaya.”

Fuad first applied for the case to be transferred from the Sessions Court to the High Court earlier in September, on the basis that the applicants’ trial necessarily involves complex questions of constitutional and public international law, which are best determined by the High Court.

The accused persons, who were caught at the weekly market in Tuaran on February 1, were alleged to have possessed seditious pamphlets urging Sabah and Sarawak to leave Malaysia.

Erick purportedly had 91 pieces of the publication, Joseph 13 pieces, Azrie five pieces and Jemmy one piece.

If found guilty of the offence under Section 4(2) of the Sedition Act, the accused persons are liable to a fine of up to RM2,000 or a maximum jail term of 18 months or both upon conviction, and the offensive material is to be seized and destroyed.

As of now, no dates have been reserved for the trial, which should commence next year.