KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here today dismissed an application by DAP vice-president Teresa Kok to have her sedition charge transferred to it from the Sessions Court.
Delivering his decision, Justice Kamardin Hashim said that he disagreed with the submissions of Kok’s counsel Sankara Nair.
Sankara had submitted that the case should be transferred for hearing in the High Court for three reasons. Firstly, he contended that the Sedition Act, 1948 pre-dated video technology, thereby rendering the charge ‘odd’.
He also argued that the High Court was more senior and that if the case were to be started at the Sessions Court, Kok would be deprived of the right of appeal to the highest court in the land.
Under present law, appeals from cases emanating in the Sessions Court can only be taken to the High Court and, thereafter, the Court of Appeal. Kok will not, however, be entitled to bring a further appeal to the Federal Court.
Kamardin, however, rejected those submissions.
“The Session Court judge is capable and has 10 years of experience,” he noted. “She can hear her case.”
He also said that he did not think Kok would be deprived of any of her rights even if her appeal terminated in the Court of Appeal since that appellate court was sufficiently competent to address all matters that arise in that case.
Speaking outside the courtroom after the decision, Kok said that she was disappointed with the outcome.
“We will file an appeal against the decision by next week,” she said.
Sankara added that he would apply for five judges to decide whether the case should be heard at the High Court.
Meanwhile, the Session Court fixed Kok’s case for mention on October 2 pending the outcome of another sedition case involving Prof Azmi Shahrom in the Federal Court.
In that case, Azmi is challenging the constitutionally of the Sedition Act, 1948. To date, no decision has been handed down by the court.
Kok was charged last year under Section 4(1)(c) of the Act for her Chinese New Year video, ‘Teresa Kok Onederful Malaysia 2014,’ which was uploaded onto YouTube.