By M. MAGESWARI
PETALING JAYA: A bid by the prosecution to amend the sedition charge against Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin was denied by Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob.
“The court accepts the objection raised by the defence team. Therefore, the application by the prosecution to amend the charge is rejected,” she ruled yesterday.
Lead prosecutor Deputy Public Prosecutor Ishak Mohd Yusof had earlier tendered an amended charge against Raja Petra.
DPP Ishak said the amendment was to include the website address and title of the alleged seditious article in the appendix attached to the original charge.
Defence counsel Gobind Singh Deo objected to the amendment, saying that the application was not in line with the provisions of Section 158 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
“The prosecution now realises that it has no case under the original charge,” he argued on the sixth day of the sedition trial.
Gobind Singh stressed that five witnesses had testified and the defence had questioned them based on the original charge.
DPP Ishak 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 court later allowed a request by the prosecution to call Cyber Security Malaysia senior digital forensic analyst S. Sivanathan, 28, and the police’s computer forensic investigator ASP Wa’ie Isqal Kria Abdullah, 38, to testify yesterday.
Sivanathan, the sixth witness, told DPP Farhan Read that Raja Petra was listed as one of the profile names in the computer which was used to access Malaysia Today with administrator privilege.
ASP Wa’ie told DPP Ishak that investigating officer DSP Mahfuz Abdul Majid gave him computers for analysis on May 2. He said DSP Mahfuz asked him to search for the seditious article and other files.
“I found several documents in both computers,” ASP Wa’ie said.
The hearing continues today.
Rejected – bid to amend charge against Raja Petra