This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 19, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: Student activist Adam Adli Abdul Halim was spared a one-year prison sentence but fined RM5,000 by the Kuala Lumpur High Court for a seditious speech he made almost three years ago.

High Court judge Datuk Ab Karim Ab Rahman reduced Adam Adli’s sentence after finding that the latter’s speech did not result in negative reaction, PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang tweeted yesterday.

Posting updates on the proceedings in the morning, Chua tweeted that the court found Adam Adli’s speech to have seditious tendencies.

Chua also said the deputy public prosecutor had appealed for the prison term to be upheld to serve as a deterrent.

Adam Adli was previously sentenced to a year in prison under Section 4 (1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948 for his remarks about the May 13 race riots at a forum three years ago, which incited the public to press for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s ouster through street protests. — The Malaysian Insider