PETALING JAYA: The Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) today criticised the High Court’s decision to dismiss Rafizi Ramli’s appeal against his conviction under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
C4 executive director Cynthia Gabriel said the decision was a “step backward” which seriously undermined the importance of safeguarding the right to freedom of information.
In a statement, she added that the OSA had been “arbitrarily” used to mask corrupt practices and obstruct the public from accessing information related to matters of public interest.
“C4 emphasises that using the OSA to criminalise whistleblowers who expose corruption and mismanagement to the public promotes an environment that breeds corruption primarily because secrecy allows for cases to be squashed without an explanation.
“Over the 45 years the OSA has been in force, we have witnessed how the law has been used as an effective means of ensuring that information on government is kept secret,” she said.
Last November, Rafizi was sentenced to a total of 36 months in jail over two charges of possessing page 98 of the 1MDB audit report and for revealing the contents of the report at the press conference. Read more
