By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : A court Thursday confirmed a sedition charge against jailed leader of a banned Hindu outfit for writing a letter to Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, blaming British colonialists for the poor condition of Indians, and posting the letter on a web site.
P. Uthayakumar, 48, one of the three leaders of the Hindu Rights Action force (Hindraf), failed in his bid to get this charge deleted on a technical ground that the consent signed by the attorney general was invalid, Star Online said.
In rejecting Uthayakumar’s application, Sessions Court judge Sabariah Othman ruled that the consent signed by the Attorney General was proper.
Uthayakumar is charged with publishing seditious content in the letter to Brown and posting it on policewatchmalaysia.com between Nov 15 and Dec 8, 2007.
According to reports of that period, he held the former British colonialists responsible for the poor conditions of the Indians who settled in the present-day Malaysia during that era. He sought compensation.
Tamil Hindus form bulk of the two million-plus ethnic Indian people who form eight percent of Malaysia’s multi-racial 28 million population.
Besides Uthayakumar, Manoharan and Vasanthkumar, are serving two year jail terms under the stringent Internal Security Act (ISA).
Two others, Ganabatirau and S. Kengadharan, also charged and detained, were released last month by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, “in a spirit of reconciliation”.