KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 — PKR MP Chua Tian Chang was sentenced to a month's jail by the Sessions Court here today for trespassing into a restricted police zone following the Bersih rally in 2012.

But the lawmaker popularly known as Tian Chua secured a stay of execution from judge Mahmud Abdullah pending appeal of the conviction, news portal Malaysiakini reported.

Chua had been arrested for failing to leave the restricted area at the Malaysian Police Training Area (Pulapol) despite being ordered to do so in the hours after the Bersih rally for electoral reforms on April 28, 2012.

But the sentence as it stands will not put the lawmaker at risk of losing his parliamentary seat, which would occur had he been given prison time of a year or more.

During his trial, Chua testified that he was not aware that the zone he entered was restricted to the public, and said he only discovered this after he was charged with the offence.

On April 29, 2012, police officer DSP A. Rajakopal had at around 2.30am given the orders to leave Pulapol, which is listed as a protected area according to the Protected Areas Order (No. 2) 1975.

On May 15 the same year, Chua was charged under Section 4 (2) of the Protected Areas and Protected Places Act 1959 after he allegedly disobeyed police orders by refusing to leave Pulapol after his release.

He was arrested with 512 rally-goers after the Bersih 3.0 rally for electoral reform in the national capital here ended.

The offence is punishable by a jail term of up to two years, a fine of no more than RM1,000 or both.