The third-year law student said his decision to file the suit was because he felt the decision against him had no basis and was unconstitutional.
UKM’s disciplinary board recently fined Asheeq RM200 and suspended him for one semester, for his involvement in the “TangkapMO1” rally in Kuala Lumpur last August. Rally leader Anis Syafiqah Mohd Yusof and two of her fellow Universiti Malaya students were also suspended for taking part in the rally.
Asheeq in his suit named UKM, the higher education ministry and the government as defendants.
Asheeq today told FMT that the cost of the suit came from his own savings, as well as money raised by several groups.
“The money was collected by various groups including the students themselves, Selangor DAP Youth and several NGOs, who want me to win this case,” he told reporters outside the High Court this morning.
The #TangkapMO1 rally was held on Aug 27 in Kuala Lumpur, and was participated mostly by university students who demanded authorities to take action against Malaysian Official One (MO1), named by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in its civil forfeiture suit against 1MDB in July last year.
Transfer of suit
Earlier today, Asheeq sought to transfer the suit in challenging his suspension by UKM for joining the rally to another judge.
His lawyer S Surandra said they applied for the case to be transferred to another High Court judge, Justice S Nantha Balan, as he was hearing another similar suit by four student activists from Universiti Malaya (UM).
The four are Anis Syafiqah, Muhammad Luqman Nul Haqim Zul Razali, Suhail Wan Azahar and Muhammad Luqman Hakim Mohd Fazli. They filed the suit last year to declare UM’s (Discipline of Students) Rules 1999 a breach of their freedom of speech and expression.
“We want both suits to be tried together because we do not wish to see conflicting decisions made by two different judges on the same issue,” Surandra told reporters.
He added, Justice Hanipah Farikullah, under the Appellate and Special Powers division, had fixed Feb 28 to hear Asheeq’s application to transfer.