Kuala Lumpur, Aug 3 (IANS) A court will try for sedition a Malaysian Indian leader who published a letter addressed to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on a web site two years ago.
The three-day trial of P. Uthayakumar will begin Sep 28, the Sessions Court ordered, Star Online reported Monday.

Uthayakumar is the legal adviser of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), a banned body that claims to speak for Malaysia’s two million ethnic Indians, a bulk of them Tamil Hindus.

In December 2007, Uthayakumar had claimed trial for the alleged letter in which Hindraf blamed the former British colonial power for the plight of ethnic Indians in present-day Malaysia and demanded compensation.

The government pressed the sedition charge against him and four other Hindraf leaders — S. Kengadharan, Ganabatirau, Vasanthkumar and M. Manoharan — who had organised a protest rally here in November 2007.

Detained under the stringent Internal Security Act (ISA) for two years, they were released before completing their jail terms earlier this year by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak who said it was “a gesture of conciliation”.

A court had returned Uthayakumar his passport to enable his travel for medical reason.

During Monday’s hearing, his lawyer N. Surendran sought dates for September saying that his client was in London for treatment for a rare heart condition and needed time to recover and return.

On July 19, Uthayakumar launched a new political party called the Human Rights Party which he said would champion the rights of the marginalised people in all communities.

Meanwhile, a court released R. Sivarasa, an ethnic Indian parliamentarian who was alleged to have participated in a street rally last week to demand repeal of the ISA, a sensitive issue in Malaysia.

Sivarasa was one of the scores of protesters the police detained and produced before court Monday.

Rejecting a demand from several political organisations and NGOs, the government has said it will soon amend the ISA, but not repeal it.