Aziz Bari membisu seribu bahasa...

Aziz Bari pilih tidak jawab soalan polis...

Pensyarah Universiti Selangor, Dr Abdul Aziz Bari memilih mendiamkan diri daripada menjawab polis ketika disoalsiasat selama satu setengah jam di Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Sabak Bernam pagi tadi.

Pakar perlembagaan yang disiasat di bawah Akta Hasutan kerana dituduh menghina Sultan Selangor itu tiba di balai polis berkenaan jam 11 pagi ditemani peguamnya Afiq M Noor dan seorang lagi peguam, Dr Dheeraj Bar.

"Beliau tidak menjawab sebarang soalan polis, berdasarkan Seksyen 112," kata Afiq, merujuk kepada Kanun Tatacara Jenayah yang membenarkan seseorang tidak menjawab soalan sekiranya merasakan soalan itu mempunyai niat mendedahkan dirinya kepada dakwaan jenayah.

"Dia pilih untuk tidak menjawab sebarang soalan supaya tidak memerangkap dirinya sendiri," katanya kepada The Malaysian Insider.

Afiq mengesahkan polis menyiasat Aziz mengikut Seksyen 4(1)(a) Akta Hasutan 1948.

Siasatan polis berkisar kenyataan Aziz di dua forum seperti dilaporkan The Malaysian Insider, susulan lebih 100 laporan polis dibuat terhadapnya.

Artikel berkenaan, "Sultan Selangor terikat Deklarasi 1992, perlu lantik Wan Azizah, kata Aziz Bari" disiarkan pada 1 September dan "Only God, not Sultan, has absolute power, says legal expert," disiarkan pada 9 September lalu.

Isnin lalu, dua wartawan The Malaysian Insider turut diminta memberi keterangan kepada polis berhubung artikel tersebut.

Dalam artikel pertama, Aziz berkata Sultan terikat dengan Deklarasi Prinsip Perlembagaan 1992, yang menggariskan panduan kepada pemerintah, termasuk menjelaskan peranan Raja-Raja dalam politik.

Artikel kedua berdasarkan ucapannya di forum anjuran Persatuan Ummah Sejahtera Malaysia (PasMa) pada 8 September, di mana beliau dipetik sebagai berkata mengikut perlembagaan, kuasa budi bicara Sultan dalam melantik MB hanya terpakai dalam kes Parlimen tergantung.

Aziz berkata ia tidak sepatutnya digunapakai dalam krisis Selangor apabila Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Ismail mempunyai sokongan majoriti Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN).

Sekiranya didakwa, Aziz adalah ahli akademik kedua selepas Profesor Madya Dr Azmi Sharom dari Universiti Malaya.

Beliau bakal berdepan tiga tahun penjara atau didenda tidak kurang daripada RM5,000.

Pada 2 September, Azmi didakwa berhubung kenyataannya yang disiarkan dalam sebuah portal berita, mengenai krisis perlembagaan Perak 2009.

Siasatan terhadap Aziz merupakan yang terbaru selain pemimpin pembangkang, aktivis sosial, peguam dan wartawan.

Awal bulan ini, aktivis Muhammad Safwan Anang dan Adam Adli Abd Halim dipenjara selama 10 dan 12 bulan kerana kenyataan mereka pada satu forum 13 Mei tahun lalu, menggesa rakyat turun ke jalanan membantah keputusan pilihan raya umum lalu.

Aktivis Ali Abd Jalil juga dikenakan tiga pertuduhan kerana menghina Sultan Johor dan Selangor dalam laman Facebooknya.

Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim juga dipanggil untuk merekodkan kenyataan berhubung laporan polis yang dibuat terhadapnya pada 2011 apabila mendakwa dia memberi kenyataan hasutan berhubung kes liwatnya.

Selain itu, peguam Edmund Bon, bekas ahli jawatankuasa Dewan Ulama PAS Selangor, Wan Ji Wan Hussin, dan wartawan Malaysiakini, Susan Loone serta beberapa lagi pemimpin PR turut berdepan dengan tuduhan sama. – tmi

Aziz Bari grilled for an hour, but remains silent...

Constitutional expert and law professor Abdul Aziz Bari was questioned for an hour by the police under the Sedition Act today, but he opted for silence and chose not to answer any question.

Aziz, who has been the subject of a flurry of police reports against him over comments he made in two articles published in The Malaysian Insider, was questioned at the Sabak Bernam district police headquarters this morning.

According to one of his lawyers, Afiq M Noor from Lawyers for Liberty, Aziz invoked Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), which allows a person to remain silent if the questions could incriminate him.

Another lawyer who accompanied Aziz to the police station was Dheeraj Bhar.

"We have not been informed what the next step will be. They will inform us," Afiq told Malaysiakini, saying that the questioning ended about 12.30pm.

Dheeraj informed Malaysiakini that the police have not said whether Abdul Aziz will be charged.

He also said that, however, police did state that the probe was due to "orders from above".

The first of the articles in question was a Malay article titled 'Sultan Selangor terikat deklarasi 1992, perlu lantik Wan Azizah, kata Aziz Bari' (Sultan bound by 1992 declaration, must appoint Wan Azizah, says Aziz Bari), and another article titled ‘Only God, not Sultan, has absolute powers, says legal expert’.

Two reporters from The Malaysian Insider have had their statements taken over the said articles as well.

Aziz was also investigated under the Sedition Act in 2011, after he said the sultan's decree on the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) raid was "uncommon and inconsistent".

If charged, he will the second academician to be prosecuted under the Act post-Merdeka, since the new dragnet started.

Previously, Universiti Malaya law lecturer Azmi Sharom was charged with sedition over comments he made about the Perak constitutional crisis of 2009 in an article by The Malay Mail Online. - mk

Sedition Act challenge goes to High Court...

 A sessions court in Kuala Lumpur today decided to allow law professor Azmi Sharom's move to challenge his sedition charge in the High Court.

 

The sessions court therefore allowed the application made by Azmi's lawyer, Gobind Singh Deo, on the draconian 1948 legislation, since it was not enacted by Parliament.

 

The decision was made by sessions judge Zanol Rashid Hussain, who said a constitutional issue had to be decided.

Following this, the judge suspended the sessions court proceedings pending the decision by the High Court.

Zanol fixed Nov 7 for the case to be mentioned in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.

 

Constitutional issues are to be decided by the upper courts - meaning the High Court and above - and not by the lower courts.

Azmi and a string of others have been charged under the Sedition Act swoop in recent months.

The 45-year-old academician claimed trial on Sept 2, to one principal and an alternative charge of sedition.

Azmi is charged under Section 4 (1)(b) of the Sedition Act, with an alternative charge under Section 4 (1)(c) of the same Act, for publishing a seditious statement on Aug 15.

This is over an article titled ‘Take Perak crisis route for speedy end to Selangor impasse, Pakatan told’, which was published by the Malay Mail Online news portal.

The associate professor in the Law Faculty says he was merely making the statement as a law lecturer and based on principles of the law and democratic practices.- mk

cheers.