KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — The High Court dealt a “massive blow” to the constitutional guarantees of free speech when it convicted senior lawyer Karpal Singh under the to-be-repealed Sedition Act, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) MPs said today.

The lawmakers expressed disappointment and puzzlement with the court ruling, but reserved their indignation for the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, for using what they dubbed an “antiquated, oppressive” law it had promised to replace, to curb dissent.

“We are very disappointed because of the High Court decision and the court should have upheld freedom of speech instead of convicting Karpal,” Padang Serai MP, N. Surendran told The Malay Mail Online.

The PKR vice-president who is also a lawyer said freedom of speech was guaranteed under Article 10 of the Federal Constitution but the court had decided that Karpal’s legal opinion was tantamount to sedition.

He also insisted the charges against the DAP chairman were baseless and politically-motivated.

“At the end of the day, the government should just stop using laws to silence the opposition and jail the opposition,” Surendran said.

Sepang MP, Mohamed Hanipa Maidin, shared a similar view, calling the charges against Karpal “outrageous”.

“When you charge a senior lawyer making a legal statement about legal issues, it’s something very unreasonable, outrageous,” the PAS legal affairs chief said.

Hanipa said the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) should exercise greater caution before pressing charges in cases that deal with constitutional guarantees, more so when the government had committed itself to repealing a piece of legislation.

Karpal’s conviction today showed Putrajaya’s “empty promises”, he said.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the repeal of the Sedition Act in July 2012 as part of a series of legal reforms, adding that the 1948 law would be replaced with a National Harmony Act, which the prime minister said would be “better equipped to manage our national fault lines”.

But since then, little word has been issued on the Sedition Act’s replacement except for Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s remark last year that the National Harmony Act draft was still on track.

Formerly the de facto law minister, Nazri was reported saying in July 2013 that the AGC was still engaging with stakeholders before it completed drafting the proposed legislation.

M. Kulasegaran, the Ipoh Barat MP for DAP, said the court’s decision today was “very regrettable”.

He said Putrajaya should be “magnanimous” and repeal the Sedition Act, noting that many countries have stopped using the British-introduced law as it went against freedom of expression.

Karpal, 73, was initially charged in March 2009 with uttering seditious words at a press conference at his office here, when he said the removal of then-mentri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin by the Sultan was open to legal challenge.

He was initially acquitted in June 2010 but lost when the government appealed.

Earlier today, he was convicted after High Court judge Datuk Paduka Azman Abdullah ruled that Karpal failed to raise reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case at the end of defence.

Sentencing has been deferred until March 7.

The Bukit Gelugor MP risks being stripped of his seat if he is fined more than RM1,000 or sentenced to a jail term of more than one year.

Under Section 4(1)(b) of the Act, he can be punished with a maximum three years’ jail, RM5,000 fine or both.