adminPUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today ordered a businessman to be called to defend himself on two charges of sending obscene communications against the then King Permaisuri Agong in 2023.
A three-judge panel comprising Datuk Azman Abdullah, Datuk Mohd Radzi Abdul Hamid and Datuk Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid allowed the prosecution’s appeal to set aside the decisions of the Sessions Court and the High Court which had acquitted and discharged Sharil Mohd Sarif at the end of the prosecution case without calling him to defend himself.
In a unanimous decision, Judge Mohd Radzi said the Sessions Court and High Court judges erred when they found that the prosecution failed to prove the element of intent based on the testimony of a forensic psychiatric consultant who stated that the respondent was insane and did not understand the consequences of his actions.
The court ordered that Sharil’s case be returned to the Sessions Court for him to defend himself before the same Sessions Court judge, and set May 15 for the case to be mentioned again in the said court.
Judge Mohd Radzi said that since the respondent had submitted a defence of insanity, he could call back the Forensic Psychiatry consultant to present the same evidence.
On 16 Oct 2023, the Sessions Court acquitted and released Sharil, 43, at the end of the prosecution case without calling him to enter his defence. The High Court later upheld the acquittal on 27 June 2024, leading to the prosecution filing an appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Sharil faces two charges of intentionally creating and initiating the transmission of communications of an insulting nature via the Twitter account @SharilSarif39 between 5.28am and 5.30am on March 12, 2023, with the intent to offend another person.
He was charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and is punishable under Section 233(3) of the same act, which carries a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or a maximum one-year imprisonment or both and may be further fined RM1,000 for each day the offence continues after conviction.
Sharil has a previous conviction for the same offence. In 2021, he was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and a fine of RM20,000, with a six-month imprisonment in default. He was also sentenced to two months’ imprisonment in 2019 and 10 months’ imprisonment in 2020 for the same offence, all by the Sessions Court.
In the proceedings at the Court of Appeal, Deputy Public Prosecutor Atiqah Abdul Karim @ Husaini represented the prosecution and lawyer Pang Tek Kit represented Sharil.
— BERNAMA
