Amanah Youth vice-chief jailed eight months for sedition

KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) Youth vice-chief Mohd Fakhrulrazi Mohd Mokhtar (pix) was sentenced to eight months in jail by a Sessions Court here for making a seditious speech.

On Thursday, Sessions Court judge Shamsuddin Abdullah meted out the sentence after Mohd Fakhrulrazi, 37, was found guilty for delivering a seditious speech during the #KitaLawan rally in front of the Sogo Shopping Complex on Feb 21 last year.

He was found guilty under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act.  

Shamsuddin said the defence had failed to raise a reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.

"The court finds that the words uttered were seditious and had a seditious tendency to bring about hatred, or contempt, or to excite dissatisfaction against the Government and the administration of justice in the judiciary," he said.

Before sentencing, Shamsuddin said he had taken into account public interest and was of the view that a deterrent sentence was needed to serve as a lesson to the offender and others.

During mitigation, Mohd Fakhrulrazi's lawyer Ariff Azami Hussein said his client was an ustaz and a political activist who had no fixed income.

He said Mohd Fakhrulrazi had to support his wife and six children with the youngest child less than a year old while the oldest was 13.

Ariff said as it was his client's first offence, a fine of RM2,000 was suitable, adding that the current trend of sentences passed by courts for seditious offences was a fine.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Julia Ibrahim said a deterrent sentence of a fine and imprisonment was appropriate in the case.

Shamsuddin then handed down the jail sentence and ordered the eight months to run from Thursday.

Ariff applied for a stay of execution of the sentence. The court set bail at RM5,000 with one surety.