This comes less than two months after the trio were given a discharge not amounting to acquittal in August after claiming trial on Sept 8, 2015, with Jingga 13 coordinator Fariz Musa, for participating in the #KitaLawan rally on the afternoon of March 28, 2015.
The charge is under Section 4(2)(c) of the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA).
Lawyer Vince Tan, representing Mandeep Singh, said the three claimed trial again before magistrate Ahmad Solihin Abd Wahab, and the court fixed Nov 3 as the next mention date.
“Initially, the deputy public prosecutor (Mohd Safarizal Zakaria) had asked for RM5,000 bail for each person with one surety.
“But we argued that the previous RM500 bail should be maintained and the magistrate agreed to this,” he said.
When contacted by FMT, Mandeep said charging Maria, himself and Sim again was an abuse of the judiciary.
“We were given a discharge on Aug 28 because the deputy public prosecutor did not attend the first day of trial.
“Because of their failure, we became victims of an unjust system,” he said.
Mandeep said they would not be cowed and would contest the charges.
Apart from the trio, activists Adam Adli and Rozan Azen Mat Arep and PKR assemblymen, Chang Lih Kang and Lee Chean Chung, had also claimed trial on a similar charge.
Maria, Mandeep, Adam and Fariz had previously challenged the validity of the PAA at the Federal Court but the apex court had refused to hear their case as there were no facts of proceedings from the trial court to decide on the constitutionality of the provision.
The rally saw thousands of participants gather at Jalan Tun Perak, near Dataran Merdeka, and march to the Sogo shopping mall on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. The rally was called to protest Anwar Ibrahim’s conviction the month before and the then impending implementation of the GST.