PETALING JAYA, Nov 3 — PKR’s Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad will be prosecuted for the third time over the same offence of failing to notify authorities of the “Black 505” rallies held to protest alleged electoral fraud in Election 2013.

Sessions Court judge Abu Bakar Manat today rejected the Seri Setia representative’s preliminary objection to the charge, and ordered the case to be transferred to the High Court following an application by the prosecutor.

This is the third time the Selangor exco member is being charged for the same offence under the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) 2012; he was acquitted the first time by the Court of Appeal last year and given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal in the second attempt to prosecute him this year.

“We are quite disappointed with the fact that the DPP has essentially sprung this transfer to the High Court without informing us of anything,” said Nik Nazmi’s lawyer, Syahredzan Johan.

“Because this changes things quite considerably. If you want to file, for example, the revision of the decision of the Sessions Court now, it may become academic in that sense because it is now in the High Court, so it won’t be heard in this court.”

Syahredzan had earlier argued that Section 7(2) of the Federal Constitution did not allow a person to be tried again for the same offence if they have already been acquitted or convicted.

However, Abu Bakar agreed with the prosecution’s argument on the definition of the word “tried” in the section’s text and that Nik Nazmi had not technically been through a “trial” in his previous cases.

Nik Nazmi had earlier raised a preliminary objection to challenge the charge, his third under Section 9(1) of the PAA, which covers the requirement for authorities to be notified of any public assembly 10 days before the event. The charge is read together with Section 9(5), which imposes a maximum RM10,000 fine for non-compliance.

Asked to comment on the court decision today, the Selangor lawmaker said he will continue to look into all other available options to fight the charge.

“As I have said, we will go all out to defend what we had achieved in the Court of Appeal,” Nik Nazmi told reporters.

“I still believe we are correct in that [case] and no matter what they throw at us, we will go on.”

Nik Nazmi was hauled again to court for the third charge despite the success against the previous two, following the Court of Appeal’s decision last September to convict fellow PKR member R. Yuneswaran under the same charge.

The unexpected ruling appeared to go against the precedent set by the appellate court in Nik Nazmi’s case a year earlier, which had ruled it unconstitutional to criminalise spontaneous public assemblies in breach of a ten-day notice required under Section 9(1) of the PAA.

The court had in the April 25, 2014 ruling also ordered that Section 9(5) be struck out for running counter to the Federal Constitution.

Earlier this morning, Bersih 2.0 chair Maria Chin Abdullah had claimed trial to the same charge for the Bersih 4 rally that occurred late August this year.