Three legal questions of public importance have been filed to get leave to appeal decision by Court of Appeal in sedition case, says government lawyer Nurul Aini Yahaya.
PUTRAJAYA: The government’s leave to appeal application, to restore a provision in the Sedition Act to restrict freedom of speech, will be heard by the Federal Court on Feb 21.
Federal counsel Nurul Aini Yahaya said the date was fixed after case management before deputy registrar Nurul Mardiah Mohammed Redza today.
The court would hear the government’s leave application to appeal against a Nov 25 decision which declared that Section 3(3) of the Act contravened Article 10 of the Federal Constitution.
Section 3(3) of the law states that the prosecution need not prove the intention of the accused said to have made an inflammatory speech or statement.
“We have filed three legal questions of public importance to enable us to get leave,” she told reporters.
Lawyer Raul Lee Baskaran appeared for PKR Sri Muda assemblyman Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei, who had filed for a declaration to rule Section 3(3) of the colonial-era legislation as unconstitutonal.
Court of Appeal judge Varghese George, who delivered the judgment, said an accused charged with sedition would face discrimination as the prosecution would not need to prove intention to establish its case.
He said this, in effect, would leave open the door for selective prosecution, an affront to the constitutional right to be dealt with equally by, and be protected equally before, the law.
Last year, the High Court, in dismissing Shuhaimi’s suit, had said his action was an abuse of the court process.
Shuhaimi was charged with sedition in 2011 based on a blog post on the appointment of then Selangor state secretary Mohd Khusrin Munawi.
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