[JURIST] Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] on Monday urged [press release] Malaysian authorities to end their politically motivated criminalization of government critics. The country’s Sedition Act of 1948 [text, PDF], a law that limits freedom of speech and expression, has been used increasingly by the Malaysian government to persecute activists and opposition leaders. This year two people have been convicted of sedition while at least 12 more face charges for expressing their opinions. This statement from AI comes a day before the Malaysian Federal Court’s decision in a sodomy case against opposition People’s Justice Party leader Anwar Ibrahim [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] is due. AI Asia Pacific Director Richard Bennett called the charges politically motivated and “a blatant attempt by the Malaysian authorities to silence and undermine a critical voice,” also stating that the decision would be seen in the context of a wider clampdown on critics in the country under the Sedition Act.

UN officials have called on Malaysian authorities to review the Sedition Act [JURIST report] on numerous occasions. Last month an official for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website], voiced fear that the authorities in Malaysia are increasingly applying the Sedition Act arbitrarily to silence critical voices. In September prosecutors charged law professor Azmi Sharom [JURIST report] with sedition for his opinion on a political crisis that occurred five years ago. The lawyer representing Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of Malaysia’s strongest governmental opposition group, was charged with sedition [JURIST report] in August because of a written statement he issued acting as Anwar’s legal counsel.