KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia must immediately drop sedition charges against human rights lawyer and co-founder of Lawyers for Liberty Eric Paulsen over a tweet criticising an Islamic state agency, Amnesty International said.
Paulsen was charged today under the Sedition Act for a tweet he sent on January 12. The tweet called on the government to prevent the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) from “promoting extremism”.
“These politically-motivated charges must be dropped immediately and unconditionally. It is ludicrous that someone could face three years in prison simply for a tweet critical of the authorities,” The New York Times quoted Amnesty International’s Southeast Asia and the Pacific research director Rupert Abbott as saying.
“Eric Paulsen is a known human rights defender, and has been targeted simply for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression. If he is jailed, Amnesty International would consider him a prisoner of conscience,” he said.
Over the past year, the colonial-era Sedition Act had been used to arrest journalists, opposition politicians and human rights defenders.
Eighteen people have been charged under the law since the start of 2014. Eric Paulsen is the second member of Lawyers for Liberty to face sedition charges over the past year.
“The Malaysian authorities’ relentless use of the Sedition Act to silence any dissent must end immediately. This amounts to a serious assault on freedom of expression that has had a chilling effect on public debate in the country,” said Abbott.