By IANS
Kuala Lumpur : The legal adviser of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), a group that claims to represent people of Tamil origin in Malaysia, has filed a petition against a sessions court’s verdict rejecting his objection to being charged with sedition.
On Dec 11 last year, P. Uthayakumar was produced in the sessions court here to face a charge of publishing a seditious letter on a website between Nov 15 and Dec 8. The lawyer, however, pleaded not guilty to publishing the alleged letter.
Uthayakumar has appealed against the order that held that the absence of a signature on the letter allegedly written by him did not make the charge levelled by the government defective.
Uthayakumar submitted Tuesday that he was not satisfied with the decision given by judge Sabariah Othman on Dec 11 last year. He said the judge made a mistake when she decided that the letter did not have to be signed merely because it was posted from a website, The New Straits Times reported Wednesday.
Hindraf courted controversy when it organized a protest rally Nov 15, 2007 and Uthayakumar, along with four Hindraf leaders, has been imprisoned for two years under the stringent Internal Security Act (ISA).
The five have been charged with trying to destabilise the state.
Thirty one rally participants are also being tried by the government that said that the rally threatened to destroy the ethnic balance in Malaysia that has roughly eight percent ethnic Indians, 33 percent Chinese and a majority of Malays.