Badrul Hisham Shaharin
KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Rembau division chief Badrul Hisham Shaharin is applying to strike out three charges against him relating to the Bersih 3.0 gathering, on the grounds that they were incompetent.
Badrul Hisham, 34, also known as ‘Chegubard’, filed the applications at the Sessions Criminal Court registry here, via Messrs S. N. Nair & Partners.
He named the public prosecutor as respondent.
Badrul Hisham was charged, together with Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, on July 2 and May 22 on the Bersih 3.0 gathering.
On July 2, Badrul Hisham pleaded not guilty to the charge of abetting R. Tangam, G. Rajesh Kumar and Farhan Ibrahim in violating an order of Magistrate Zaki Ashraf Zubir, dated April 26, which prohibited any gathering in the Dataran Merdeka area between April 28 and May 1.
On May 22, he also pleaded not guilty to a charge of participating in a street protest in violation of an order issued by Zaki Ashraf, prohibiting any gathering at Dataran Merdeka between April 28 and May 1.
Badrul Hisham was charged with committing the offence between 2.30pm and 3pm on April 28, in Jalan Tun Perak here.
He had also pleaded not guilty to another charge of conspiring with Tangam, Rajesh Kumar and Farhan by instigating them to remove the metal barricades at Jalan Raja here, on the same day.
Badrul Hisham was charged with committing the offences under Section 188 of the Penal Code and Section 4(2)(c) of the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) 2012.
In his application, he said the order issued by Zaki Ashraf was invalid on the grounds that it was issued out of jurisdiction and/or was ultra vires the PAA since its coming into force on Jan 30, which lawfully allows peace assemblies.
He also said, the proper authority to impose restrictions on the public for lawful assembly under the PAA was the police, and not the Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, as stated in the order.
Badrul Hisham also stated that the charges against him which were based on the magistrate’s order under Section 188 of the Penal Code were constitutional. — Bernama