The High Court in Johor Baru has ruled that the 19-year-old teenager who pleaded guilty to 14 counts of making insulting comments against Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim be sent to a reform school in Malacca.
High Court judge Mohd Soffian Abdul Razak today overturned the Session Court's decision to sentence Muhammad Amirul Azwan Mohd Shakri to a year in jail, after reviewing the appeal filed by his family.
“The High Court substituted the jail term and sent Amirul to the correction school, although we had urged the judge to reduce the prison term, or for him to be bound over for good behaviour,” Amirul's lawyer Jimmy Puah was quoted by news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) as saying.
However the judge decided to send Amirul to the Henry Gurney School in Pasir Mas, Malacca, until he is 21 years of age.
Amirul was charged under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, under which upon conviction, he could be fined not more than RM50,000 or jailed not more than one year, or both.
Amirul, a labourer, had requested in his appeal for the court to lighten his sentence as he is from a poor family, and had promised not to commit the offence again.
Comments were posted on Facebook
He had posted the insulting comments on Facebook, under the pseudonym 'Miyo Castello', between March and April.
Amirul was supposed to serve his one year jail sentence from April 28, the date of his arrest. The Sessions Court on June 7 sentenced him to one year's jail on each of the 14 charges, to run concurrently.
Amirul's family then appealed to High Court to substitute the Session Court's jail sentence with a fine and also applied for a stay on the jail sentence.
In his submission, Puah asked the court to impose a four-month jail sentence and to then free Amirul, who was jailed four months ago.
“We also told the court that the accused was a first-time offender, was remorseful over his action and had pleaded guilty to charges framed against him,” Puah said.
The defence will file an appeal with the Court of Appeal on the High Court's verdict.
Also present was deputy public prosecutor Nor Azizah Mohamad.
A number of people have been arrested in the last two weeks for allegedly posting rude remarks against the crown prince, though Tunku Ismail had later asked the police not to arrest his critics.
