KUALA LUMPUR – Kedah caretaker menteri besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor is being inconsistent in pleading not guilty to his sedition charges, the home minister said.
Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said this is because he had also apologised to the Selangor sultan prior to being charged.
“So which is it? First, you apologise to the sultan, then you plead not guilty in court,” Saifuddin, who is also Pakatan Harapan (PH) secretary general, said at a talk in Kedah last night.
Sanusi, who is also Perikatan Nasional elections director, was charged on Tuesday with sedition for two comments made during a political speech in Gombak last weekend.
He pleaded not guilty to insulting the Selangor sultan over the appointment of the state menteri besar and for criticising the formation of the unity government.
Sanusi had also sent a written apology to the sultan, explaining that his speech had been twisted out of context by political rivals PH and Barisan Nasional.
Saifuddin, however, said the matter was grave enough for the Selangor Royal Council to lodge a police report against Sanusi.
“It is the Selangor Royal Council that lodged the police report. The council wouldn’t simply do it.
“The council is made up of eminent members like retired judges and retired senior civil servants,” Saifuddin said at the Jelajah Madani talk in Suka Menanti, Kedah, which was live-streamed on Facebook.
The home minister, who oversees the police force, also explained why Sanusi was arrested at 3am on Tuesday prior to his court appearance.
“He said he was in communication with police from 10pm to 2am.
“What did he say? When police asked him to come to the police station, he said, ‘I don’t want to be arrested, I don’t want to be arrested’,” Saifuddin said.
Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain, however, had said police arrested Sanusi from a Mont Kiara hotel because calls to him and his aides were “rejected”. – The Vibes, July 20, 2023
