SELAYANG (Oct 4): Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor’s trial for alleged seditious remarks he had made about the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong and Sultan of Selangor will begin on Jan 18, 2024.
At the Selayang sessions court on Wednesday, Judge Nor Rajiah Mat Zin had set 12 dates in January and February next year to hear the case.
On July 18 this year, Sanusi was charged with two counts of sedition under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948 for the statements he had made.
Both charges accused him of uttering words that had a tendency to incite disloyalty against a ruler.
He was charged in two separate courts in Selayang, one before Judge Nor Rajiah and another before Sessions Court Judge Osman Affendi Mohd Shalleh.
At the case management on Wednesday, Judge Nor Rajiah informed the prosecution and defence in the case that both charges will now be heard before her as Judge Osman Affendi had allowed an application by the prosecution to hear both charges in one court.
Osman allowed the application because the two charges involve the same witnesses and the same subject matter of the charges.
Once they were in Nor Rajiah’s court, deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Masri Mohd informed that they will be calling ten witnesses.
Sanusi’s lead counsel was Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud.
The dates set for the trial next year are: Jan 18, 19 and will continue on Feb 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 22 and 23.
For the first charge, Sanusi had allegedly belittled the Sultan of Selangor for having appointed Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari as the state’s menteri besar and said that the Kedah sultanate would not have appointed him (Amirudin) as menteri besar. Sanusi also alleged that the Kedah ruler’s lineage was the only one which was uninterrupted.
For the second charge, Sanusi is alleged to have questioned the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong’s move to have a unity government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Sanusi faces a fine of not more than RM5,000 or a jail term of not more than three years or both, for each charge.