Uthaya to be freed on Oct 3 as sentence slashed

 

The Court of Appeal has dismissed Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader P Uthayakumar’s appeal to set aside his sedition conviction.

However, the appellate court reduced his jail sentence from 30 months to 24 months.

With the remission, his lawyer M Manoharan (left) said, Uthayakumar would be set free on Oct 3.

Justice Aziah Ali led the three-member panel that made the unanimous decision.

"We find that the complaints raised against the conviction made by the appellant on the sessions sourt and High Court decisions are without merit, and the appeal against the conviction is dismissed.

"After considering the mitigation plea, we agree to reduce the prison sentence to 24 months, from 30 months," Justice Aziah said.

The other judges sitting with her are Justices Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof and Ahmadi Asnawi.

Deputy public prosecutor Azlina Rasdi appeared for the prosecution.

As this case originated from the sessions court, this was Uthayakumar's final appeal.

Uthayakumar was found guilty of sedition by a sessions court in Kuala Lumpur June 5, 2013, for publishing seditious material in a letter, written between Nov 15 and Dec 8, 2007, to then British prime minister Gordon Brown.

In the letter, Uthayakumar claimed that the government had state-sponsored 'social-ethnic cleansing' of the Indian poor in Malaysia.

For this, he was ordered to be jailed for two-and-a-half years.

The High Court in KL upheld the sessions court decision, which led to Uthayakumar's final appeal which was heard today.

Detained under ISA

Prior to this he had been detained under the Internal Security Act for more than 800 days, from December 2007, on similar grounds, along with his lawyer Manoharan and three others.

His younger brother P Waythamoorthy (left) who was also part of the Hindraf movement, escaped the ISA crackdown on the Hindraf leaders and lived in the UK for several years before being appointed as a senator and deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department last year, following the 13th general election.

Waythamoorthy eventually resigned over claims that the promises made to Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia, an entity registered with the Registrar of Societies, were not fulfilled.

Earlier, Manoharan submitted that there was no corroborative evidence between the investigating officer and the Malaysiakini journalist to prove the article was seditious.

The Malaysiakini journalist was a witness in the case.

He also told the court that what was printed by the investigating officer from the Police Watch website was no longer available and there was no evidence to suggest that the letter was sent.

Manoharan also said that the 30 months jail sentence was excessive as the courts had, prior to this, at most imposed an 18 months jail sentence for sedition.

He asked that a fine be imposed instead of a jail sentence as the late Karpal Singh was ordered to pay RM4,000 fine for a similar charge of sedition.

"The number of police reports lodged against the late Karpal were higher than what Uthayakumar had faced," Manoharan argued.

About 20 Hindraf supporters gathered since this morning to hear the appeal. Also present was his wife S Indra Devi.