Rafizi pleads not guilty on OSA, defamation charges
He was charged under Sections 8(1)(c)(iv) and 8(1)(c)(iii) of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for having in his possession and exposing, during a press conference, page 98 of the 1MDB audit report which was a classified document.
He was said to have committed the act at Parliament building between March 24 and 28 in the late afternoon. If convicted, he will face up to a maximum seven years in jail.
Sessions Court judge Zulqarnian Hassan granted him bail of RM3,000 with a surety for the OSA charges. “The next mention date is fixed for April 29,” he said.
He was also slapped with another charge of criminal defamation, for defaming pilgrim funds board Tabung Haji (TH), on February 18 in his blog. The punishment for defamation is a maximum two year jail term or fine or both.
He pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him by interpreters.
Magistrate Mohd Rehan Mohd Aris granted bail of RM1,000 with one surety to Rafizi and fixed April 29 as the next mention date.
Rafizi was represented by R. Sivarasa while Abazafree Abbas appeared for the prosecution.
On Wednesday, Rafizi was remanded for three days to facilitate investigations on leaking classified documents. On Tuesday, the opposition lawmaker was detained at Parliament, purportedly after he stepped out of the premises, to facilitate investigations on wrongful dissemination of official secrets.
Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar had said Rafizi would be investigated under Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act for wrongful communication of official secrets.
Last month, Rafizi exposed a document that was supposed to be part of the unreleased Auditor-General’s report. He claimed there was a relationship between 1MDB and the delays in the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) gratuity payments.
His claims were denied by LTAT’s chairman Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor who said it was defamatory and was made with bad intentions to tarnish the institution’s name.
Anwar said they have filed a suit against Rafizi.
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