Addressing the three-man panel led by Justice Mohtaruddin Baki at the Court of Appeal today, Tian Chua said he had decided to discharge his lawyer, N Surendran, and was ready to go to jail.
He said in his statement to the court that he had been arrested along with 500 other people during the Bersih rally on April 28, 2012, and sent to the Police Training Centre (Pulapol), which was a restricted area.
“I was not charged with taking part in an illegal assembly but in connection with my presence in Pulapol,” he said, adding that he had been detained in the police training academy that day.
“My lords, in my opinion, it is an absurdity to penalise me for being in Pulapol’s compound in a situation in which I was brought against my will.
“Subsequently, I was convicted by the Sessions Court and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment and fined RM1,000,” he said.
Tian Chua said he had participated in the Bersih rallies as part of the struggle for a fairer and better Malaysia.
He said he and other Malaysians wanted change, and a better world where justice, liberty and fairness are upheld.
“If the price for changing this repressive and corrupt system is to go to prison, I shall say I am more than ready to accept.”
Tian Chua added that accepting his custodial sentence was not an admission of wrongdoing but rather an effort to highlight the wrongs of the government.
After hearing his statement, Justice Mohtaruddin along with Justices Zakaria Sam and Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil struck out his appeal and ordered Tian Chua to serve his one-month sentence from today.
Tian Chua was seen shaking hands with his fellow PKR members and Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah before he was escorted to the court’s detention room.
In an immediate response, PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said she was taken aback by her vice-president’s decision.
“He was inclined to tell us about his decision yesterday,” she told reporters outside the court.
Last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court upheld the Session Court’s 2014 decision to fine and jail Tian Chua for refusing a police order to leave the Pulapol premises.
The court ruled that the conviction was safe, even though the written judgment from the late trial judge Mahmud Abdullah was not signed or dated.
“The disputed judgment did not create any prejudice against him.
“The unsigned judgment’s irregularity can be cured by Section 422 of Criminal Procedure Code,” said Justice Nordin Hassan, who heard Tian Chua’s appeal.
Mahmud, who died in May 2014, had only delivered an oral decision on the matter.
Justice Nordin said the judgment was nonetheless valid as the PKR vice-president’s case had gone through a full trial.
Tian Chua was found guilty of refusing an order from DSP A Rajagopal to leave the Pulapol area on Jalan Semarak at 2.30am on April 29, 2012, a day after the Bersih rally.
Police said Pulapol was listed as a protected area according to the Protected Areas Order (No 2) 1975.
On May 15 that same year, Tian Chua was charged under Section 4(2) of the Protected Areas and Protected Places Act 1959 for allegedly disobeying police orders by refusing to leave Pulapol after his release.
During his original trial, Tian Chua testified that he was not aware that the zone he had entered was restricted from the public, adding that he only discovered this after he was charged with the offence.
This is Tian Chua’s second conviction in 2016. He was also fined RM1,800 and jailed for three months by another Sessions Court on Sept 28, for making seditious statements during a forum four years ago.
Earlier this year, he was fined RM3,000 by the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court for insulting a police officer using vulgar words, three years ago.
He risks losing his qualification to stand in the general election if he cannot reduce his RM3,000 fine.
This is according to Article 48 of the Federal Constitution, which disqualifies a person from being an MP for five years should the elected representative be convicted and sentenced to more than one year in jail, or fined more than RM2,000.