The Court held that no prima facie case was made out by the prosecution under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act.

Justice Roslan Hamid added that while the prosecution had proven that Rayer said those words, it failed to prove the seditious element in the remark. “Umno is a political group, not a racial one,” he pointed out when reading his decision.

The Court also dismissed an alternative charge against Rayer under Section 504 of the Penal Code. Justice Roslan said the prosecution failed to prove a prima facie case on the alternative charge of intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace.

Rayer was arrested in June 2014 for sedition after 14 police reports were lodged against him for uttering the words “celaka Umno.”

He also courted controversy on May 20 that year when he uttered the same words in the state assembly, causing a group of Umno Youth members to hold a protest outside the assembly building the very next day.

The demonstration turned ugly when several among them gate-crashed and stormed into the assembly hall looking for Rayer.

The Opposition lawmaker also uttered “celaka Umno” during a Bukit Gelugor by-election rally in Air Itam the night before.