KUALA LUMPUR: A former crane operator was fined RM4,000 by the Cyber Court for intentionally insulting the Prime Minister in a video of the latter singing "Shalala" at a karaoke session with President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, two years ago.
Judge Zaman Mohd Nor meted out the sentence on Muhammad Amirul Helmy, 24, after the accused pleaded guilty to posting an offensive content on his Facebook page "Amirul Helmy" with intention to insult another person.
The judge ordered Amirul to serve a month's jail should he fail to pay the fine.
Amirul who was unrepresented admitted to having posted the video and had intentionally written an insulting comment about Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the posting. The offence was committed at 10.23am on Nov 18, 2016.
His charge under Section 233(1)(a) of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Act 1998 carries a maximum RM50,000 fine or an imprisonment of not more than a year or both, if convicted.
According to the facts, on Nov 18, 2016, at 10.23am Amirul had posted the insulting comment on Facebook page "Amirul Helmy" with intention to hurt another person.
A person named Hamdan Mohd Salleh who read the comment on Feb 17, 2017, about 9am at Menara Pandan Kapital, Jalan Pandan Utama, Pandan Indah here, lodged a complaint to the MCMC about the offensive content.
Investigations by the MCMC found that Amirul had posted comment through his Facebook activity log.
Amirul who lost his job because of the case pleaded for a minimum fine as he was the sole breadwinner of the family.
"I have to support my brother who is still studying and take care of both my parents. I was forced to resign when the case first came up and I am still jobless," he said.
Meanwhile, MCMC deputy public prosecutor Mohd Sophian Zakaria urged the court to impose a sentence which would serve as a lesson to the accused.
"It was clear that the accused made the posting intending the person at whom the posting is directed to reads it as he included a hashtag of "Najib Razak" in the posting," Sophian said.