KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 – Former Batu Kawan Umno deputy division chief Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan and his lawyer Matthias Chang were charged in the Magistrate’s Court on Monday. They was been charged with the attempting to commit the sabotage against the banking and financial services in Malaysia.
They allegedly was committed to the offence between June 28 and Aug 26 this year in several locations which are including in the police stations in Paris, Switzerland, Hong Kong, London and Singapore. They was been charged under section 124 (L) of the Penal Code for attempting to commit sabotage read together with Section 34 of the same act.
In additional, the offence will carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years, upon conviction. In the meantime, deputy public prosecutor Mohd Masri Daud requested earlier for a month to prepare relevant documents to sanction the charge under Security Offences Act 2012.
However, the lead form the counsel Haniff Khatri Abdulla objected to the one-month period and asked the magistrate for a bail if Khairuddin and Matthias is charged under the Penal Code or the case should be transferred to High Court here on Monday. The Magistrate Siti Radziah Kamardin also fixed a date at Oct 26 for re-mention of the case.
Haniff told the reporters when met outside the courtroom that the team of the lawyers was seeking a review at the High Court on Monday over the Magistrate’s Court decision. Meanwhile, the charge was read to Khairuddin in Bahasa Malaysia while Chang who appeared agitated and also requested for the charge to be read to him in English.
When the Khairuddin and Matthias was escorted into the courtroom’s dock, it drew an applause from their families and friends. In the same time, Chang turned around at one point and told his family that he was on the fifth day of his hunger strike. Khairuddin was arrested on Sept 23 under Security Offences Act 2012 while Chang was detained on Oct 8 at Dang Wangi police station after visiting the former.
