Lawyer and former DAP MP Karpal Singh was charged this morning in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court for sedition for his remarks made in court that "people in high places" were behind an alleged attempt to poison sacked deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim with arsenic last September. However, he said he would be seeking a ruling in the higher courts whether lawyers enjoyed immunity for utterances made by them in court.

DAP vice chairman Lim Guan Eng told malaysiakini that certain Umno figures had contended that lawyers could not be politicians. "Now lawyers cannot even be lawyers," he lamented. Also charged in court this morning was KeADILan Youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Noor under the Official Secrets Act.

Ezam was accused of distributing classified government documents which provided evidence of corruption of two Umno politicians, International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz and former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik, at a press conference on Nov 6. He will claim trial set for June 5 in the Sessions Court, Petaling Jaya.

Meanwhile, KeADILan vice-president Marina Yusoff was charged with sedition in the

Butterworth Sessions Court. Marina is alleged to have uttered seditious words in a ceramah at the Moral Uplifting Society Hall on Sept 29 last year.

According to Bernama , she is alleged to have uttered the words: "I want to remind the Malays, Chinese, Indians of the cause of May 13, The cause is Umno, Umno which started to kill the Chinese because Umno in Selangor had lost. The killing of the Chinese was started by Umno, at that time planned by Umno and Selangor leaders led by Datuk Harun.

Marina is charged under section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act which carries a maximum RM5,000 fine or three years' jail, or both, on conviction. Her trial has been set to begin on April 17.