Mohd Sharulnizam (right) thanks his counsel, Perira, after being acquitted and discharged by the th Sessions Court yesterday.
KOTA KINABALU: A 28-year-old technician breathed a sigh of relief after the Sessions Court here yesterday freed him from two charges of uploading and making offensive comment about Prophet Muhammad SAW through a game application.
Judge Noor Hafizah Mohd Salim made the decision on Mohd Sharulnizam Stanley Sigan in an open court proceedings when the case came up for decision at the end of prosecution stage.
She ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case against the accused on both charges framed against him and therefore discharged and acquitted him.
On the first charge, Mohd Sharulnizam was accused of uploading the comment which was likely to cause religious disharmony between groups of Muslims and non-Muslims.
The alleged offence is framed under Section 298A (1)(a) of the Penal Code, which provides for a jail term of not less than two years and not more than five years.
On the second charge, he was alleged to have made and initiated the transmission of the comment with intent to annoy the public who read it.
For this offence, he was charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and faces a maximum fine of RM50,000 or a jail term of up to a year or both, if found guilty.
He was alleged to have committed the offence through Mobile Legend application under a profile name BAKAKUK at 11.48pm on February 26 and the comment was read on February 27 at 1am at Taman Kinarut, Papar.
The trial commenced in October this year in which the prosecution had called six witnesses who testified against the accused.
The court also ordered for the accused’s bail to be refunded.
Deputy public prosecutor Megat Mahathir Megat Tharih Affendy acted for the prosecution while the accused was represented by counsel PJ Perira.
After the proceedings, Perira emphasized to reporters outside the courtroom that his client is truly innocent since the uploaded offensive comment was not coming from Mohd Sharulnizam’s phone.
He also claimed that his client did not even have the said game application in his cellphone.