Hindraf founder P Uthayakumar's appeal against his 30-month jail sentence for sedition was dismissed this morning by the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Justice Azman Husin ruled that the Sessions Court had not erred in its verdict.

However, he told Uthayakumar that he has a further avenue of appeal by filing an application in the Court of Appeal.

In upholding the remaining 22 months of Uthayakumar’s sentence. Azman said he would explain his reasons in a written judgment.

Uthayakumar was convicted last June for the contents of a letter he had written in 2007 to then British premier Gordon Brown on the plight of Indian Malaysians.

His lawyer M Manoharan ( right ) said that Uthayakumar’s appeal would be filed before the end of this week.

 

"I will do that as soon as possible. I am also waiting for the written judgment," he said.

 

He said Uthayakumar is currently set for release on Feb 15 next year, and he would therefore ask the Court of Appeal to speed up the process.

 

"We do not want the appeal process to become nugatory because the sentence is already served. He only has one year left before his release date," Manoharan said.

 

Uthayakumar has already served seven months of his jail term at the Kajang prison.

 

In December 2007, Uthayakumar has been arrested under the Internal Security Act and held without trial up to 2009, when he was released.

Reaffirming Najib’s credentials as a ‘false reformist’

In a statement issued later today, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) executive director Eric Paulsen said that he was “concerned” with the High Court’s dismissal of Uthayakumar’s appeal.

He said that Uthayakumar’s conviction reaffirmed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s credentials as a “false reformist” as he had broken his 2012 promise to abolish the Sedition Act.

“Further, these investigations and prosecutions are an extreme waste of valuable public funds and police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers resources would have been better used to address real crimes, rather than being squandered on what are clearly politically-motivated offences,” he said, adding that sedition charge has been largely used on opposition leaders and activists.

He asked the Attorney-General’s Chambers to conduct itself in a fair manner by selectively charging opposition leaders and dissidents when there are individuals connected to the government like Ibrahim Ali and Ridhuan Tee who “have made more serious and offensive speeches but which had led to no repercussions or action”.

In a separate press statement, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said that the police’s double standards in taking actions over matters that stir racial or religious tension is what causing the racial tension in the country to escalate.

Lim said that inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar should start taking action against organisations such as the Council of Islamic NGOs, which offered RM 1,200 to anyone who would ‘slap’ DAP’s Seputeh MP Teresa Kok over her Chinese New Year parody video.