By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, July 8: The owner of a social media account has been charged under Section 500 of the Penal Code for defaming Padungan Assemblyman Wong King Wei.
The accused, 50, is charged for posting defamatory messages against Wong on Facebook under the name “Hui Tai Lang”, a villain wolf in cartoon series “Xi Yang Yang”.
These defamatory posts including “Wong used fraud money to buy luxurious house and luxurious car”, “YB is involved in land fraud case”, “Wong applied for court order to demolish native houses” and “a group of lawyers had used forged identity cards, forged signatures, forged documents to sell land having value RM4.5 million to one native businessman”.
Upon conviction, the accused may be sentenced to imprisonment for two years or a fine, or with both.
Wong who claimed victim of the defamatory postings testified in the case as a witness in a hearing today.
During the cross examination, Wong said the motive of the accused was for revenge as several years back, Wong agreed to represent the accused’s brother in a case.
Wong later dropped the case because he found out that the accused’s brother had not told him the full truth of the case.
He claimed that his dropping of the case had caused the accused’s brother to be upset and the latter had sent him a long message, accusing him to be a person without integrity.
The Padungan Assemblyman also claimed that since then, the accused had been continuously launched attacks against him. This had caused him to lodge police reports.
Wong said these online attacks have severely damaged his reputation as a state assemblyman as well as a legal counsel.
The accused was represented by Counsel Chen Ted Chong.
The case resumes tomorrow afternoon. — DayakDaily
