Former Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders have expressed shock and disappointment over the prison sentence meted out to the movement's founder P Uthayakumar yesterday.

NONE "The runaway becomes a minister and the one behind the Hindraf rally is jailed. That is the reality," lamented S Jayathas ( left ), who was the Hindraf information chief.

He was referring to Uthayakumar's brother P Waythamoorthy, who has been appointed as a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department and was sworn in as senator just hours before Uthayakumar was found guilty of sedition by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court.

Jayathas, who is now the PKR human rights and legal affairs bureau deputy chief, said that it was Uthayakumar who organised the November 2007 Hindraf rally.

At the time, Jayathas said, Waythamoorty had refused bail and remained in a police lock-up when he should have been leading the rally as the movement's chairperson, while Uthayakumar pressed on with the protest which saw an unprecedented 30,000 people on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

NONE "Uthayakumar was the main person who organised the rally, nobody can deny that," he said when contacted for comment yesterday.

Another former Hindraf leader, V Ganabatirao, said while he has not been following Uthayakumar's trial, he was shocked to learn of the conviction.

The newly-appointed Selangor exco member and fellow Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee said although he felt sorry for Uthayakumar, he could not comprehend the latter's decision not to defend himself in court.

“He is a lawyer. He knows at that stage (of the trial) what would happen to him (if he does not defend). Even the court clerk would know what would happen,” he said when contacted.

PM has promised to repeal Sedition Act

Meanwhile, lawyers N Surendran and M Kulasegaran condemned the use of the Sedition Act 1948 against Uthayakumar, saying that it is a breach of freedom of speech.

“I hold the government responsible for the conviction and jailing of Uthayakumar.

“The prime minister has promised to repeal the Sedition Act in July 2012, and despite that Uthayakumar has been jailed for 30 months,” said Surendran, who is also the PKR vice-president and Padang Serai MP.

He demanded for all Sedition Act charges to be dropped, the law to be repealed, and for all those jailed under it to be released.

Both Surendran and Kulasegaran had spoken up for Hindraf before at the height of the movement in 2007, the former as a human rights lawyer and the latter as the Ipoh Barat MP.

Uthayakumar was convicted of publishing seditious material in a letter written between Nov 15 and Dec 8 and posted in the Police Watch website.

The website is used by the Hindraf, of which Uthayakumar is a legal adviser, to update its activities.

The letter, dated Nov 15, 2007, was from Hindraf and addressed to Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom at No 10, Downing Street, London.