KUALA LUMPUR - Umno Youth exco Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, better known by his blogger name Papagomo for his inflammatory posts, will be charged on Thursday (Feb 28) over an alleged assault in Selangor on Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, according to local media.
Wan Muhammad Azri, 36, will be charged at the Kajang Court under Section 509 of the Penal Code for insulting modesty of a person by word or gesture and Section 323 of the same law for voluntarily causing hurt, Kajang deputy police chief Superintendent Mohd Sabri Abdulllah said in a statementon Wednesday (Feb 27).
"Previously, the complainant (Syed Saddiq) claimed to have been attacked by a group of Barisan Nasional supporters and assaulted by Papagomo," the Bernama news agency reported Supt Mohd Sabri as saying.
Mr Syed Saddiq, 26, who is also Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia Youth chief, claimed that he was assaulted by supporters of opposition coalition Barisan Nasional on Feb 16 as soon as he was leaving the nomination centre for the Semenyih state by-election at the Seri Cempaka Hall of the Kajang Municipal Council shortly after the four candidates of the by-election were announced.
He alleged that Wan Muhammad Azri cornered him from a different route and put him in a headlock.
"I was walking to my car, along with three others, when the incident occurred.
"At first, the Barisan supporters simply jeered at me, so I did not heed what they said and continued walking," Mr Syed Saddiq said.
The Youth and Sports Minister said nearby policemen managed to stop the situation from turning even more serious during his encounter with Wan Muhammad Azri.
Mr Syed Saddiq posted videos of the incident on social media, expressing his disappointment with the "act of gangsterism".
The videos showed what looked like a group of blue-clad Barisan supporters crowding around Mr Syed Saddiq as his officers and police personnel intervened.
"If you want to curse me by calling me babi (pig), bangsat (rascal), bodoh (fool), or hancing (smelly), I can respect that because its your right.
"But if you want to go to the extent of physical assault, that's too much!" he wrote on his Facebook post.
His posting prompted some on social media to allege that Mr Syed Saddiq provoked the fight by deliberately walking past the area where Barisan supporters were gathered.
In December 2017, Wan Muhammad Azri paid more than RM900,000 (S$298,195) in damages to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, now prime-minister-in-waiting, for defamation. Datuk Seri Anwar claimed Wan Muhammad Azri had posted four defamatory statements on his blog between March 16 and 20 in 2013.
