High Court defers trio’s defence for participating in street protest

Justice Azman Abdullah declines to rule if the charge against three opposition men is constitutional or otherwise as he wants to wait for the outcome of a similar case.

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has deferred the defence of two opposition assemblymen and a party worker who are facing charges of participating in a street protest, pending the outcome of a similar case in the Federal Court.

They are Teja assemblyman Chang Lih Kang, Semambu assemblyman Lee Chean Chung, and former political secretary to PKR vice-president Tian Chua, Rozan Azen Mat Rasip. They were ordered by the Magistrate’s Court in August to enter their defence.

However, they filed an application in the High Court to have their case referred to the Federal Court on grounds that the charge they faced under the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) was unconstitutional.

Justice Azman Abdullah today said it was appropriate to put on hold the application by the three pending the decision in the case of Adam Adli Abdul Halim.

The trio’s case has now been fixed for case management on March 13.

Azman said he was bound by a Federal Court judgment that held last year that a High Court could only refer to the apex court to decide the constitutionality of the charge made under the PAA after an accused had been told to enter defence by the trial court.

Lawyer Eric Paulsen, who represented the three, told reporters that Azman did not make a decision whether to refer the matter to the apex court as he wanted to wait for the outcome of the Adam Adli case.

On Nov 28, magistrate Ahmad Solihin Abd Wahid acquitted Adam Adli without his defence being called for participating in the #KitaLawan rally two years ago.

“The prosecution has filed an appeal in the High Court against Adam Adli’s acquittal,” Paulsen said, adding that the case could finally be referred to the Federal Court if Adam Adli’s acquittal was set aside and if he was ordered to enter defence.

On Oct 10 last year, the apex court ordered seven people, including three MPs, to face trial for participating in street protests under the PAA in 2015.

A five-man bench led by then chief justice Arifin Zakaria said there were no facts of proceedings from the trial court to decide on the constitutionality of Section 4 (2) (c) of the PAA.

“The defendants (the seven) are at liberty to make reference to the Federal Court after a finding of facts has been made whether street protests are constitutional or otherwise,” Arifin had said.

The seven included Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen and Stampin MP Julian Tan Kok Ping, who were charged with participating in a Bersih 4 rally on Aug 29 last year in Kuching.

Both were subsequently acquitted of the charge but it is unclear if the prosecution has appealed.

Meanwhile, Adam Adli, Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin and activists Maria Chin Abdullah, Mandeep Singh and Fariz Musa were charged with participating in the #KitaLawan Rally on Feb 28, 2015, at the Sogo shopping mall and Esplanade KLCC.

The prosecutor has only dropped the charge against Fariz.

Chang, Lee and Rozan were charged with participating in the “Kita Lawan” rally in March 2015 to call for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to be released from prison and for Prime Minister Najib Razak to step down.

Deputy public prosecutor Jaizah Jaafar Sidek appeared for the government against the three. -FMT