PETALING JAYA: The Sessions Court here rejected an application by the prosecution to amend the sedition charge levelled at Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin.

The prosecution had applied to include the website address and title of the allegedly seditious article in the appendix of the charge.

The judge rejected the application after the defence team raised an objection.

Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob ruled that she had considered the proposed amendments as to the particulars of the charge by the prosecution.

“The court has accepted the objection raised by the defence team. Therefore, the application by the prosecution to amend the charge is rejected," she told the packed courtroom Monday.

Earlier, lead prosecutor DPP Ishak Mohd Yusof tendered an amended charge against the Malaysia Today editor.

DPP Ishak said the amendment included the website address: http://www.malaysia-today.net/2008/content/view/6604/84 and title of the alleged seditious article - Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell - in the appendix attached to the original charge.

Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo objected to the amendment of the charge on grounds that the application by the prosecution was not in line with the provisions of Section 158 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Gobind Singh said Section 158 had stated that any court may alter or add to any charge at any time before judgment is pronounced.

“Today the application by the prosecution is to substitute the appendix. The article enclosed in the original charge is not published by the accused. It is our clear stand and it is highly prejudicial to our defence if the court allows the application,” he contended.

In stressing his point, Gobind Singh said it was for the court to take into account that five witnesses had testified and the defence had questioned them based on the original charge.

DPP Ishak however said the prosecution only intended to add two ingredients in the appendix so that it would be consistent with the sedition charge against the former ISA detainee.

“The purpose is to give reasonably sufficient notice to the accused to understand his charge as required under Section 153 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code on the particulars of the charge” he added.

The court later also allowed the request by the prosecution to call CyberSecurity Malaysia senior digital forensic analyst S. Sivanathan, 28 and police’s computer forensic investigator ASP Wa’ie Isqal Kria Abdullah, 38, to testify Monday after the complainant of the sedition case, fifth witness Supt Gan Tack Guan was on two-day medical leave.

Sivanathan, who was the sixth witness, told DPP Farhan Read that Raja Petra was mentioned as one of the profile names on the computer which was used to access Malaysia Today with the administrator privilege.

Asked about the meaning of "administrator privilege", he said it meant accessing the website and also maintaining it.

ASP Wa’ie told DPP Ishak that investigating officer DSP Mahfuz Abdul Majid gave him a CPU and a notebook for analysis upon meeting at his office on May 2.

He said DSP Mahfuz asked him to search for the seditious article and other files which were related to Internet history.

Upon examining the computers, he said, he prepared a report over the matter and handed it to DSP Mahfuz on May 4.

“I found several documents on both computers.,” he said. The hearing continues Tuesday.

Raja Petra claimed trial to publishing a seditious article on his website on April 25.

Last Friday, Shah Alam High Court judge Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad freed Raja Petra after finding that his two-year detention order under the Internal Security Act ISA was unlawful.

He had been in detention for more than a month over another article he had published on Malaysia Today that allegedly ridiculed Islam.

In KUALA LUMPUR, Bernama reports that the High Court on Monday allowed an application by Raja Petra to withdraw his habeas corpus application of Sept 16 for release from ISA custody.

Justice Suraya Othman granted the application after Raja Petra’s counsel Malek Imtiaz Sarwar made an oral application to the court on Monday.

“My client instructed me to withdraw it (the application) in view of the Shah Alam High Court decision to free him from the two-year ISA detention order,” Malek Imtiaz told the court.

Suraya said that since the matter had become academic, the court was allowing the application and that it was up to Raja Petra, if he wished, to seek civil action over his detention.

Earlier, Senior Federal Counsel Najib Zakaria said the Home Ministry and the Kamunting Detention Centre had no objection to Raja Petra’s application.

Raja Petra filed the habeas corpus application on Sept 16 on the grounds that his detention was unlawful and that the home minister had contravened the Federal Constitution with his action.

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