TAPAH: A cleaner was sentenced to seven days' jail and RM800 fine after he was found guilty of making a defamatory statement against one of the policemen killed in the Ulu Tiram police station attack.
Magistrate Anis Zainab Pawanteh ordered Wan Abd Qayyum Wan Mohd Radzuan, 25, to serve an additional week in jail if he failed to pay the fine.
She also ordered the accused's mobile phone to be forfeited.
Wan Abd Qayyum was accused of defaming Constable Ahmad Azza Fahmi Azhar through an uploaded posting on the Facebook account of Nur Azza Assyaqiren Azhar, 29.
The comment made by the accused was intended to damage the reputation of the victim and hurt the feelings of the victim's father, Azhar Khaiden, 54.
Wan Abd Qayyum was charged under Section 500 of the Penal Code, which carries a sentence of up to two years imprisonment, a fine or both.
The prosecution was handled by Deputy Public Prosecutor Noor Nabilah Norzam, while the defence was conducted by National Legal Aid Foundation lawyer Amani Williams-Hunt.
During the proceedings, the magistrate also called Azhar to give a statement regarding the accused's actions, which not only hurt their family's feelings but also amounted to an insult to his late son and their family.
"When I read the statement suggesting that my late son deserved to die because he often extorted money from others, it was an insult to the memory of my son (Ahmad Azza Fahmi) and to my family.
"Our family are disappointed, angry and hurt by the comment, which implied that my son died in Ulu Tiram because of a corruption case," he said.
Meanwhile, Amani, who represented the accused pleaded for leniency, stating that her client works as a cleaner at a factory in Pasir Gudang, Johor, earning a monthly income of RM1,500.