Long Arm Of The Law Catches Up With Rightist Akmal Cutting Short Umrah Trip To Face Trial On Aug 22

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“PLEASE pray for me. If this is the price I’ve to pay to uphold the sovereignty of the country, I’ll not budge even an inch,” penned firebrand UMNO Yoith chief Datuk Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh on his Facebook (FB) page from Mecca.
“… I shall cut short my umrah (mini haj) to return to my homeland to face the charges this Friday (Aug 22) at the Bukit Mertajam magistrate’s court at 8am. See you in court this Friday.”

This came about as the Merlimau state assemblyman admitted that he has been informed by the police that he would be under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code.
For the record, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) yesterday (Aug 19) confirmed that four individuals, including Akmal and Bersatu Youth chief Muhammad Hilman Idham will be charged soon over statements deemed to threaten public order.
In a statement, the AGC said the decision to charge both politicians under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code were made after reviewing the investigation papers submitted by the police on statements made by Akmal on his FB page “Akmal Saleh” and Hilman on the TikTok account “alfah.channel.tv”.

Hilman is expected to be charged at the magistrate’s court in Jalan Duta today (Aug 20) over remarks he made during a gathering outside the Dang Wangi police district last month.
Two other individuals who will also be facing charges are Chandrasegaran Subramaniam and Siti Hajar Aflah Sharuddin, in relation to the statements uploaded on the TikTok accounts “cikguchandra3” and “SHA_Abrienda” respectively.
Siti Hajar will also be charged under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code while Chandrasegaran will be charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1988.
“The statements made by all the individuals involved were found to have threatened public order or constituted the improper use of network facilities or network services,” the AGC statement added.
Recall that the Russia-trained medical doctor spent two hours at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters on late Friday evening (Aug 15) to have his statement taken.

Interestingly, many would have expected Akmal to be charged for defying the call by Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Khalid Ismail and newly-appointed to resist any form of gathering in the wake of the Jalur Gemilang row to prevent any confrontation between opposing groups.
However, Akmal who positioned himself as the defender of race and religion went ahead to lead 300 UMNO Youth and Bersatu Youth members in a peaceful 1.4km march to the hardware shop in Kepala Batas, mainland Penang “to salvage the pride of our Jalur Gemilang” on Aug 14.
This follows expiry of the “two-day ultimatum” given by the Melaka state EXCO for rural development, agriculture and food security to the AGC and police to charge hardware shop owner Pang Chin Tian, 59, for flying the Malaysian flag upside down.
Alas, a minor confrontation did occur between the UMNO-Bersatu rally-goers and the Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) group led by its executive director Zaid Malek who wanted to school Akmal that “his actions are wrongful and to protect the store-owner from bullying and intimidation”.

This chain of events eventually led to DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook called on the party’s youth wing to lodge nationwide police report against Akmal. – Focus Malaysia

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