'My brother should have been acquitted'

 

Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia (PHM) chief P Waythamoorthy said today his brother P Uthayakumar should have been acquitted of sedition by the Court of Appeal, which instead reduced Uthayakumar's sentence.

The former deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department said he was "disappointed" with the court's decision.

"Uthayakumar should have been acquitted instead of the sentence being reduced," he said.

Waythamoorthy (right) took oath as a deputy minister on the same day Uthayakumar was jailed after refusing to appeal his sentencing under the Sedition Act.

Uthayakumar was found guilty of sedition for a letter he penned to former British prime minister Gordon Brown in 2007, at the height of the Hindraf movement that the brothers had once led.

Waythamoorthy said the Malaysian government should have investigated claims made by Uthayakumar that the government practised "ethnic cleansing" on Indians, instead of taking action against him immediately.

"The Malaysian government should have acted responsibly in investigating Uthayakumar's claims, instead of silencing the voice of justice.

"The Court of Appeal, in considering Uthayakumar's appeal, should have scrutinised the whole contents of the said letter and its intentions instead of just looking at the alleged offending words literally," he added.

Waythamoorthy previously had asked his brother to appeal his sedition sentencing, which his brother did belatedly after being imprisoned in the Kajang prison.

Uthayakumar (right) is set to be freed on Oct 3 after his sentence was reduced by six months by the Court of Appeal.

He leads the unregistered Hindraf movement while Waythamoorthy's faction, PHM, was registered as a NGO prior to his short-lived participation in the government.

Uthayakumar had previously accused Waythamoorthy of wanting to be the new S Samy Vellu, the long-serving former MIC president, and also "sacked" his brother from the Hindraf movement prior to the 2013 general election.

Waythamoorthy campaigned for BN during the election while Uthayakumar contested as an independent candidate for both the Kota Raja parliamentary seat and the Seri Andalas state seat.

Uthayakumar lost his deposits for both seats.