Crime & Courts

Federal Court dismisses bid to restore sedition suit against Hadi Awang

PUTRAJAYA: Two Sabahan Christians failed in their final bid to revive their suit against Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang over the latter's alleged seditious remarks against Christians.

This was after the Federal Court affirmed the lower courts' decision to quash a leave application to reinstate the lawsuit today.

The remarks were published in a newspaper seven years ago.

A three-member bench led by Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah said the court made a unanimous decision after finding a defective affidavit filed by the applicants.

He said the court found that the applicants failed to ensure the documents were affirmed before a commissioner for oaths.

"The application is not competent; thus, we strike out the appeal," he said.

The other members of the bench were Federal Court judges Datuk Mary Lim Suan and Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal.

Earlier, lawyer R. Kengadharan who appeared for the Sabahan, said he was unable to locate his clients, Maklin Masiau and Lawrence Jomiji Kinsil @ Maximilhian, after taking over the case from the late Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram.

Sri Ram passed away on Jan 29 this year.

Kengadharan said only Sri Ram was in contact with the duo and efforts to locate them had proved futile.

Meanwhile, lawyer Yusfarizal Yusoff who represented Abdul Hadi said the applicants were aware of their defective affidavit since October last year.

"No steps were taken to rectify it," he said.

On May 7, 2021, High Court Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir said the two Sabahans had failed to produce the original copy of the impugned article of Abdul Hadi's remarks published in Pas newspaper Harakah.

He said the court was instead led to a reproduction of the article in another publication.

Akhtar said this was fraught with danger because the actual things said in the original article are not known.

Abdul Hadi had sought to strike out the originating summons (OS) filed by Masiau and Kinsil claiming that it was an attempt to oppose and take over the prerogative power of the Prime Minister to make appointments.

Among others, Abdul Hadi claimed that the lawsuit was brought against him to deny his rights under Article 8 (2) of the Federal Constitution which gives freedom to citizens to hold any public office.

The two Christian men from Labuan, Sabah, had filed the OS on Dec 9, 2020, claiming that the defendant had acted contrary to Section 3 of the Sedition Act 1948.

They claimed that Abdul Hadi had made an unfounded statement and cast aspersions on Christians and the Christian missionaries.

They claimed the statement was issued by the Marang member of Parliament on Jan 18, 2016, in the Harakah newspaper and later reported by online news portal Free Malaysia Today.

They claimed that the statement by Abdul Hadi affected the Christian community in the country and thus became a matter of public interest.

They said they filed the legal action as it has been more than four years since the defendant issued the allegedly seditious statement but no prosecution was ever brought against him.

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