KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 ― The Sessions Court here acquitted Azmi Sharom today of sedition after the attorney-general (AG) discontinued the prosecution of the Universiti Malaya law professor.
Azmi’s lawyer Gobind Singh Deo said the prosecution had applied for a discharge not amounting to an acquittal, but he had argued for an acquittal instead as the former would mean that his client could be recharged for the same offence later.
“The court agreed and acquitted Azmi,” Gobind told Malay Mail Online.
“The prosecution had had its day in court. There was no reason to leave the charge hanging over Azmi for an indefinite time and that would be a great injustice to him,” the lawyer added.
AG Tan Sri Mohd Apandi Ali announced last Friday his decision to drop Azmi’s sedition charge “in the interest of justice”.
Azmi was charged on September 2, 2014, under the Sedition Act 1948 for remarks made in an August 14, 2014, news report headlined: “Take Perak crisis route for speedy end to Selangor impasse, Pakatan told”.
The decision to prosecute Azmi for expressing his legal and academic opinion led to heavy criticism against the government.
