LAWYERS for Liberty (LFL) has urged Pakatan Harapan (PH) to stick to its stand against the Sedition Act and abolish it now that it is in government.

Its executive director, Zaid Malek, said it was unacceptable that preacher Wan Ji Wan Hussin had been sent to prison after losing his appeal in the Court of Appeal yesterday.

He said it was the moral duty of the PH-led government to ensure that Wan Ji does not continue to languish in jail for the charge.

“It is appalling and unacceptable that Wan Ji has now fallen victim to the repressive Sedition Act 1948, an act notorious for its infringement of freedom of speech,” Zaid said in a statement today.

“Adding salt to the wound is that his imprisonment is under a PH-led government, which previously championed the abolition of the Sedition Act.”

Yesterday, Wan Ji began serving nine months’ imprisonment over a 2014 sedition case linked to the Selangor sultan after the Court of Appeal allowed his appeal to reduce his sentence, which the High Court previously enhanced.

However, the bench did not allow his appeal to quash the conviction.

On April 9, 2018, the Shah Alam Sessions Court found Wan Ji, who was the former religious adviser to a Penang chief minister, guilty of sedition and imposed a nine-month jail sentence.

Zaid said the colonial-era Sedition Act had a chilling effect on free speech and militated against the sense of justice.

“It is a moral imperative and duty of PH, which promised repeal, to ensure that Wan Ji does not continue to endure imprisonment under this draconian law,” he said.

“As such, the Selangor government, which is led by PH and has a menteri besar from PKR, must do the right thing and advise the state ruler to pardon Wan Ji under article 42 of the Federal Constitution.

“Under article 42(4)(b), the ruler exercises the power of pardon on the advice of the Selangor Pardons Board. And by virtue of article 42(5), the Selangor menteri besar is a member of the Pardons Board.”

He also urged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim not to remain silent on the matter, as the PKR president had, while he was in the opposition, spoken out against Wan Ji’s sedition conviction by the High Court.

“He called the sentence ‘harsh’ and ‘not consistent with the democratic transition’. Now, Anwar, as the prime minister, is in a position to redress the injustice done to Wan Ji,” he said.

“The attorney-general, in his capacity as the federal government and prime minister’s chief legal adviser, also sits as a member of the Selangor Pardons Board under article 42(5) and must advise to grant pardon in Wan Ji’s case.” – September 26, 2023.