A police investigating officer, ASP Roszaini Abdul Hamid, told the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court today that it was not wrong for the people to gather on the streets in protest.

Roszaini, testifying at Batu MP Chua Tian Chua's sedition case, told the court during cross-examination by lawyer New Sin Yew that he agreed that racism or corruption in the government was wrong.

"I agree that if there are such defects like racism and corruption, there should be efforts to rectify them. I agree that the public can protest on the streets against such defects if there are any.

"However, I disagree with moves to overthrow a government," he said during the cross-examination.

Roszaini also agreed that the Batu MP did not call for the public to act violently during the proposed street demonstration on May 18, 2013 and that he did not ask for them to violate any laws.

The witness also agreed that Tian Chua did not use the word 'protest' in his speech when calling for the people to go down to the streets. He also agreed that the Batu MP's message was to protect the rights of the people.

The police officer also agreed that the government was a different entity from Umno and BN.

Roszaini, the fourth prosecution witness, earlier told DPP Julia Ibrahim that he had looked at a video recording of Tian Chua's speech on May 13, 2013 and also at the transcript a day after the event at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH).

He said that as the investigating officer, he found it to be seditious and had made the necessary recommendation to the Attorney-General's Chambers which then agreed with him.

Tian Chua is on trial for having allegedly uttered seditious words following the forum held at the KLSCAH. Also charged are student leader Mohd Safwan Anang, activist and lawyer Haris Ibrahim, activist Hishamudin Rais and former Umno and PAS member, Tamrin Ghafar.

Prosecution closes case

Today was was the first day of the hearing which also saw the prosecution closing its case by submitting the MP's speech and transcript as evidence.

On re-examination by the deputy public prosecutor, Roszaini said his investigation showed that what was meant by Tian Chua was for the people to take to the streets to protest against the government.

“As the IO for the case, I found the statement by the accused seditious as he had asked the people to go down to the streets to protest over a valid election's results,” he said.

Another police officer, ASP Awang Jaafar, told the court that he had lodged a police report over Tian Chua's event after the officer-in-charge failed to do so.

“There was a meeting on the morning of May 14, 2013 at Dang Wangi district police headquarters during which the district police chief Zainuddin Ahmad asked whether there was a report lodged over the event.

“As there was no police report, I took it as my responsibility to lodge the report. Normally the report is lodged by the pegawai medan (officer-in-charge) of the operations.

“However, as there were several events that night, the person was maybe tied up so I lodged the report,” he testified.

Awang said police were at the event from 9pm to 11.15 pm and there was a crowd of about 1,000 people.

He agreed with New that his report was just a round-up of the event and he further agreed that he did not remember what Tian Chua had said in his speech.

“I was inside the hall listening to Tian Chua's speech for about three-and-a-half minutes,” he said, adding that there were other speakers including Safwan and Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar.

Sessions Court judge Abdul Rashid Daud fixed Jan 29 for oral submissions.