PANDAN MP Rafizi Ramli risks losing his seat and being ineligible to contest in the next general election when the Kuala Lumpur High Court today upheld the 18-month jail term against the PKR vice-president for possessing the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) audit report without approval.

However, he was acquitted and discharged of exposing a page of the report.

Judge Azman Abdullah said the jail term was sufficient and the Sessions Court judge did not err in handing down the sentence.

But, he allowed a stay of the sentence pending appeal to the Court of Appeal, and maintained the RM20,000 bail on Rafizi.

Rafizi risks losing his seat and being ineligible to contest in the next general election if the conviction is upheld as those sentenced to more than a year’s jail or fined more than RM2,000 cannot stand for election in Malaysia.

But for now, Rafizi was still an MP, said his counsel Gobind Singh Deo, adding that he would exhaust all legal avenues to challenge the conviction.

“The law states that one needs to go through the entire appeal process before any change is made to the status of an MP,” Gobind said outside the courtroom.

Rafizi said he would not be able to stand in the next general election if his appeal was not heard before the election date.

“Nothing has changed, as far as my current status on my eligibility, and it is business as usual for me.”

He was charged with exposing Page 98 of the 1MDB report without approval at the Parliament lobby on March 28 last year, and also accused of being in possession of the report without approval on March 24 at the same location.

The MP, who was charged under the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA), was sentenced to 18 months’ jail by the Sessions Court in November last year over the charges. – August 23, 2017.