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Malaysia charges opposition Perikatan Nasional election chief with sedition for sultan insult weeks before state polls
- Perikatan Nasional’s Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, who is also Kedah’s chief minister, stands accused of bringing the Selangor monarchy into disrepute
- Sanusi is the latest among a group of opposition coalition leaders to face court charges since Anwar Ibrahim took office last November
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The election chief of Malaysia’s opposition Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition was charged with sedition on Tuesday for insulting the sultan of Selangor, one of the country’s nine constitutional monarchs, weeks ahead of state-level polls seen as a crucial test of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government.
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Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, 48, who is also the firebrand chief minister of Kedah state, was arrested before dawn before being brought to court in Selayang.
He was charged under the country’s colonial-era Sedition Act by two separate courts, where he was accused of two counts of acting in a manner that could have “a seditious tendency”.
The first charge relates to a speech Sanusi gave on July 11 in which he spoke of the appointment of his counterpart, Selangor Chief Minister Amirudin Shari, and allegedly undermined the authority of the state’s sultan in the process.
He will also face trial by another sessions court for allegedly calling into question Anwar’s unity government, which was formed late last year at the behest of Malaysia’s king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, despite no single party winning an outright majority in the polls.
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