Chong, Tan acquitted of illegal assembly charge

Court — DayakDaily.com file pic. // Photo: Pixabay

By Lian Cheng

KUCHING, Dec 17: Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH) chief Chong Chieng Jen and former Stampin MP Julian Tan have been acquitted of an illegal assembly charge today.

The decision to acquit was made at the Sessions Court here following instruction from the federal Attorney General’s Chamber (AGC) for the prosecution to withdraw the charge.

Both Chong who is Stampin MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman and Tan were jointly charged for taking part in an illegal assembly where they marched from Hilton Hotel to Padang Song Kheng Hai in the Bersih rally two years ago.

They were charged under Section 4(2)(c) of the Peaceful Assembly Act for committing the offence between 2pm to 3pm on August 20, 2015.

After the acquittal this morning, Chong called for a press conference vowing to hunt down the Little Napoleons in AGC whom he believed was sabotaging the case.

He said he had written three times to ask for the AGC to discharge the case as it was the general policy of the PH government to allow peaceful assemblies.

Chong said after the PH government took over the federal government, all the cases charged under the Peaceful Assembly Act were struck out except his.

He said he was surprised to learn only two weeks ago that his letter to Federal Attorney General Tommy Thomas requesting for the case to be struck out did not even reach the latter.

That was when he vowed to weed out the Little Napoleons who were hindering the implementation of the PH government’s new policies. — DayakDaily