PETALING JAYA, March 9 — Batu MP Chua Tian Chang was convicted and fined RM3,000 by the Sessions Court for insulting a policeman in April 2014.
The PKR lawmaker popularly known as Tian Chua will be disqualified and barred from contesting in the next elections due to the RM2,000 legal threshold but his lawyers said they will be appealing the fine amount.
“We will be appealing the judgement again to see if the fine can be lowered because anything more than RM2,000 means he cannot run for a seat in the next election,” Latheefa Koya told reporters after the verdict.
Sessions Court judge Yasmin Abdul Razak gave Chua the fine in lieu of three months jail.
Chua was charged under Section 509 of the Penal Code for uttering derogatory words against Deputy Superintendent of Police Glenn A. Sinappah on April 14 three years ago.
In the incident at the lobby of Armada Hotel here, the PKR vice-president was said to have used swear words towards the officer while trying to retrieve his handphone.
Deputy public prosecutor Suhaimi Ibrahim had asked the court for a stiffer penalty so he would not repeat the offence.
“The accused is an MP and a leader and he has followers, so I urge the court to give him a punishment so he nor [sic] his followers will want to repeat the same,” he said.
This is the second time Chua has been convicted of an offence involving a policeman.
He was previously convicted of biting constable Rosyaidi Anuar, 21, at the entrance to Parliament on December 11, 2007.
However, he appealed against the magistrate’s verdict and in May 2011, the Court of Appeal subsequently lowered his sentence to RM2,000 fine and set aside his six month jail term.
