KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — A video clip of Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli’s press conference, during which he allegedly revealed classified documents, is also subject to the Official Secrets Act (OSA), a Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court decided today.
Judge Zulqarnain Hassan ruled that raw footage of the event where Rafizi disclosed part of the Auditor-General’s report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), and played during Rafizi’s OSA trial today, should not be “distributed through social media”.
“This video is also classified as OSA. So it should not be aired or distributed in social media,” the judge declared in court before the clip was played.
The raw footage was shot by prosecution witness and KiniTV broadcast journalist Mohamad Azfarafandy Zulkfley over two related press conferences by Rafizi on the matter, on March 24 and March 28 this year.
Rafizi had in the March media expose released an excerpt of the federal audit on 1MDB to prove an alleged connection between the troubled state-owned firm and the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT).
According to the lawmaker’s previous assertions, LTAT’s subsidiary Perbadanan Perwira Hartanah Malaysia’s (PPHM) deal with 1MDB in a relocation project was the cause of the delayed gratuity payments to retired military personnel.
On April 5, Rafizi was nabbed outside the gates of Parliament over the expose. Three days later, he was slapped with two charges under the OSA over the disclosure and his possession of the document.
If convicted, Rafizi will be jailed for at least a year, a term that could be extended to a maximum of seven years.
The trial today featured Azfarafandy and Free Malaysia Today journalist Nawar Firdaws as witnesses.
The trial will resume on June 29.
