Ibrahim Ali & Blogger Perkasa Dihukum Penjara Berkuatkuasa Hari Ini

Mahkamah Tinggi Kuala Lumpur hari ini memutuskan presiden PERKASA Datuk Ibrahim Ali dan penulis blog Zainuddin Salleh bersalah atas kesalahan menghina mahkamah.

Kesalahan itu merujuk kepada penerbitan satu tulisan Zainuddin di laman web PERKASA pada 7 Januari lalu yang dianggap mencalar imej Hakim Mahkamah Tinggi Datuk VT Singham.

Mahkamah menjatuhkan hukuman penjara sehari ke atas Ibrahim, berkuatkuasa hari ini dan juga denda RM20,000.

Mahkamah turut menetapkan hukuman penjara empat minggu ke atas Zainuddin, berkuatkuasa hari ini.

Zainuddin dalam tulisannya mendakwa Singham, yang mendengar kes saman difailkan oleh Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ke atas Utusan Malaysia pada masa itu, sebagai pro-pembangkang.

Zainuddin juga mempersoalkan orientasi seksual hakim berkenaan dan menyatakan bahawa hakim tersebut masih bujang.

Hukuman dijatuhkan oleh Hakim Datuk John Louis O'Hara.

Susulan itu, Ibrahim diperintahkan ditahan di lokap kompleks mahkamah Kuala Lumpur sehingga jam 5 petang ini.

Dalam penghakimannya, Hakim O'Hara berkata tindakan oleh kedua-dua defendan merupakan serangan ke atas Hakim Singham dan turut mempersoalkan integriti dan kesaksamaan hakim tersebut.

Tambahnya, tulisan di laman web tersebut juga sub judice kerana Hakim Singham pada waktu itu mendengar kes saman oleh Anwar ke atas Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd dan ketua pengarangnya Datuk Abdul Aziz Ishak.

"Penghakiman yang sesuai perlu dibuat. Saya berharap ini menjadi penghalang kepada sesiapa yang menghina mahkamah," kata O'Hara.

Sementara itu, peguam Ibrahim, Adnan Seman @Abdullah berkata hakim enggan membenarkan permohonan untuk menangguhkan pelaksanaan hukuman, yang menyebabkan Ibrahim terpaksa dipenjara selama sehari hari ini.

"Saya akan failkan rayuan ke atas hukuman itu esok... dengan asas bahawa laman web tersebut tidak dimiliki oleh PERKASA," kata Adnan kepada pemberita. -mk

Ibrahim Ali guilty of contempt, jailed a day

PETALING JAYA: Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali was today found guilty of contempt of court over his NGO’s attack on Justice VT Singham early this year.

Justice John Louis O’Hara sentenced him to one day jail and RM20,000 fine.

On Jan 8, Perkasa published an article penned by Zainuddin Salleh, which questioned Singham’s impartiality, his past judgments and also insinuated on his sexuality.

Zainuddin launched the attack against Singham as the latter was the presiding judge in the RM50 million defamation suit filed by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim against Utusan Malaysia.

Speaking on the matter, PKR lawyer Latheefa Koya said that they brought a committal proceedings against Ibrahim and article’s author for defaming Singham while the defamation suit was on-going.

“And today, Justice John Louis O’Hara found Ibrahim and Zainuddin guilty of contempt,” she said.

Zainuddin meanwhile was slapped with a four weeks jail term.

PKR legal counsel R Sivarasa said that in his verdict, Justice O’Hara described Perkasa’s outburst against Singham as an attack on judiciary’s integrity.

“O’Hara also said the criticism was very serious and scandalised the judiciary. On top of that, he also said that Perkasa was attempting to influence the outcome of the defamation suit by launching a personal attack against Singham,” said the Subang MP.

On why Ibrahim was also punished, Sivarasa said that the judge did not see the Perkasa chief distancing himself from the article published in his NGO’s website.

“The article was published on his NGO’s website. In addition, Ibrahim did not distance himself from the post and he did not take steps to remove the article,” said Sivarasa.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim’s lawyer Adnan Seman said that his client would be appealing against the sentencing, claiming that the former had no link to the website.

“It is not Perkasa’s official website and Ibrahim did not come up with the content. My client didn’t know about the content neither when it was produced.” he said. -FMT