KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 — Hindu rights activist P. Uthayakumar was released from Kajang prison today, having fully served his 24-month jail term for sedition that was shortened on appeal last month.
Uthayakumar tried unsuccessfully to reverse his conviction on September 17, but the Court of Appeal saw fit to commute his prison sentence from the original 30 months.
The Hindraf leader was greeted by family and supporters outside the prison this morning, and said he did not rue the actions that landed him behind bars.
“I have no regrets. The only day I cried in prison was when my beloved mother passed away and the prison authorities had the week before refused my application to visit her in hospital,” he was quoted as saying by Star Online today.
On June 5 last year, the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court sentenced Uthayakumar to two years and six months’ jail after finding him guilty of penning seditious remarks in a 2007 letter to former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Uthayakumar then filed an appeal but the Kuala Lumpur High Court had on February 18 this year quashed his attempt to reverse the sedition conviction, ruling that the lower court had not erred in sentencing him to 30 months in prison.
He then pursued the matter in the Court of Appeal, where he also failed to have the conviction overturned. The appeal terminated there as Uthayakumar’s case originated in the Sessions Court.
Hindraf — the organisation that Uthayakumar co-founded with his brother P. Waythamoorthy — was banned by the federal government following the historic rally it held in 2007 to demand rights for the Indian community.
But several months before Election 2013, the government lifted the ban, drawing accusations from critics that the move was merely a political manoeuvre to win the Indian vote.
A month after the elections last year and on the same day Uthayakumar was convicted of sedition, Waythamoorthy was appointed as a senator and selected as a deputy minister.
Waythamoorthy quit as deputy minister this February 10 to protest against Putrajaya for allegedly failing to fulfil its promise to carry out reforms to improve the Indian community’s welfare.
