Former Batu Berendam MP Mohd Tamrin Abdul Ghafar was today discharged and acquitted on a sedition charge by the Sessions Court in Petaling Jaya.

Judge Azwarnida Affandi made the decision after the prosecution team informed the court that they were withdrawing the charge under the Sedition Act against Tamrin.

Deputy public prosecutor Zaki Asyraf Zubir said they agreed to drop the charge against Tamrin after a discussion with Attorney-General Tommy Thomas.

Tamrin, who is a PAS member, was charged under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act for a speech he delivered on May 13, 2013, at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur.

Outside the court, Tamrin told reporters that he was relieved and happy as the case was over after five years.

The politician said he believed that the case should have not been brought to court in the first place, as what he said at the hall was "only an opinion".

"However, under the old regime which was led by Najib Razak, we did not have freedom to express ourselves.

"Alhamdulillah, under the Pakatan Harapan government led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad today, it gives us the freedom. This is what the rakyat have been asking for all this while," he said.

Tamrin added that he believed the case was dropped in line with the new government's bid to repeal the Sedition Act.

His lawyer Eric Paulsen said prior to the prosecution team's decision to drop their charge, the defense team had written a letter to the AG's office requesting for the case to be withdrawn.

"As we know, the case against Tamrin had started since 2013, so it has been five years.

"But in the spirit of Malaysia Baharu where the government had given their commitment to repeal the act, we wrote a letter to the AG's office asking them to withdraw this charge.

"We also hope that this will happen to all other ongoing cases under the Sedition Act," said Paulsen.

It was reported that Tamrin and several others, including PKR leader Tian Chua and Anything But Umno leader Haris Ibrahim, were arrested and investigated under the same act following their participation in a post-electoral forum at the hall.