Karpal fined RM4,000 for questioning Sultan

KUALA LUMPUR: Lawyer Karpal Singh was fined RM4,000 by the High Court here today for seditious remarks about the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah.
This means that the DAP chairman can be disqualified as Bukit Gelugor MP (Karpal won the seat with a majority of more than 41,000 votes in the last general election).
However, Karpal told reporters later that the disqualification was not automatic as a person must exhaust all rights to appeal.
“I will be filing a notice of appeal,” he said.
Article 48(1)(e) of the Federal Constitution states that an MP would be disqualified if he or she is sentenced to a jail term of more than a year or imposed a fine of more than RM2,000.
Justice Datuk Azman Abdullah said the court took into consideration Karpal’s medical condition (wheel-chair bound) as a special mitigating factor in not imposing the custodial sentence sought by the prosecution.
On Feb 21, Karpal, 73, was found guilty by the court for making seditious remarks about the Sultan of Perak in the removal of Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin as the mentri besar of Perak in 2009.
He was charged with uttering the seditious words at a press conference at his office here between noon and 12.30pm on Feb 6, 2009.
The court had on June 11, 2010, acquitted and discharged Karpal without calling for his defence, but following an appeal by the prosecution, the Court of Appeal on Jan 20, 2012, ordered him to make his defence.
In his ruling today, Bernama quoted Azman as saying that Karpal was a reputable lawyer, but the court had found the accused guilty of the charge and was bound by principle to sentence him.
“Without fear or favour, all sentences imposed should reflect the severity of the offence,” ruled Azman.
Earlier, prosecuting officer DPP Noorin Badaruddin Noorin urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence, including custodial sentence “to send a clear message to others to not question the prerogative powers of the Sultan”, the Bernama report stated.
In mitigation, Karpal’s lead counsel Gobind Singh Deo had urged for Karpal to be bound over since he was “a first offender, and the issues he had uttered was within his duties as MP in the interest of the public”.
Members of Karpal’s family, foreign observers and top Pakatan Rakyat leaders were present in court to lend support to the veteran DAP leader.