KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 ― PKR leader Chua Tian Chang was acquitted today for the second time in a sedition case against him for allegedly linking the “Umno government” to the 2013 Sulu intrusion of Lahad Datu, Sabah.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court's Judicial commissioner Datuk Nordin Hassan rejected the prosecution's appeal against a 2014 acquittal of Chua, after having found that there was no collaborating evidence to prove that the PKR vice-president had indeed uttered the alleged seditious words.

“Appeal of prosecution in this case is dismissed. The acquittal is maintained,” the judge said.

During the appeal hearing earlier, the judge said the only issue to be considered was whether there was evidence to support the sedition charge against Chua, also reminding the prosecution that it needs to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Deputy public prosecutor Julia Ibrahim said the prosecution was relying on its third and final witness ― then Keadilan Daily reporter Siti Nooraishah Geoffrey ― as well as her written notes from a phone interview with Chua.

Julia said the handwritten notes were not a verbatim record of Chua's words and had contained keywords of the conversation, but stressed that Siti Nooraishah had after ending the conversation immediately typed it out while it was still “fresh in her mind”.

The judge said the prosecution's star witness could not be the one supporting her own testimony, also pointing out that the reporter's handwritten notes were illegible and could not be read by Siti Nooraishah herself.

“But P4 (the handwritten notes) cannot be understood. Even SP3 (Siti Nooraishah) doesn't know what it said, so the other contemporaneous evidence is the typed document.

“If P4 is verbatim and the court can understand, it can be collaborating evidence,” the judge said, also observing that the prosecution had not presented the typed draft as evidence in court during the trial.

The judge also pointed out that even if the court accepted that the prosecution's star witness was a credible witness, Parliament had intended for the sedition cases to require collaborating evidence.

He highlighted Section 6(1) of the Sedition Act, which said that no person shall be convicted of a sedition offence on the uncorroborated testimony of one witness.

On November 14, 2014, Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court judge Norsharidah Awang ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case against Chua, and had said that he was discharged and there was no need to call him to enter his defence.

Among other things, Norsharidah had noted the complainant Johor Bahru Umno Youth's vice chief Syed Amirruddin Syed Jaffar could not say that Chua had made the four alleged seditious remarks.

The Sessions Court judge had also noted that Siti Nooraishah had testified that she had not taken verbatim notes of her phone conversation with Chua, with the most important point being the former reporter's admission that she had not taken down the four alleged remarks word-for-word in her notes and they were written based on her own understanding.

Norsharidah had concluded that the statements made could be “manipulated”, added on and written by the reporter based on her own understanding.

Chua was charged on March 14, 2013 for his alleged remarks in an article titled “Insiden tembakan di Lahad Datu konspirasi terancang Umno ― Tian” (Shooting incident at Lahad Datu an orchestrated conspiracy by Umno ― Tian), which was published in Keadilan Daily on March 1 the same year.

Among other things, the politician popularly known as Tian Chua allegedly said the Umno government had a conspiracy to divert the attention of Sabahans, particularly over the issuing of identity cards to foreigners.

The penalty for first-time offenders under Section 4 (1) (b) of the Sedition Act 1948 is a maximum three-year jail term or a maximum fine of RM5,000 or both.

A conviction could have caused Chua to lose his Batu parliamentary seat, as a fine of RM2,000 or a one-year jail term is enough to disqualify the 53-year-old as a member of Parliament.