PKR vice-president Tian Chua and two activists today failed to strike out sedition charges against them, and will have to face trial in the Sessions Court.

Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Justice Azman Husin ruled that the application by Tian Chua, Hishamuddin Rais and Adam Adli (left) to strike out the charges was "without merit" and "premature" and ordered that the case be returned to the Sessions Court for trial.

Azman also said the arguments presented were similar to Chua's application to strike out a previous sedition charge over his comments about the Lahad Datu intrusion last year.

The three had allegedly committed the offence during a May 13 forum last year, one week after the general election. The speakers had issued calls for a mass protest in Kuala Lumpur.

Lawyers N Surendran (left) and Latheefa Koya had argued that the charge was a form of "selective prosecution" and that calling for public rallies does not amount to sedition.

Surendran said the trio would file a fresh application at the Federal Court to strike out the charges, based on the argument of selective prosecution.

He said that no government politician has ever been charged with sedition, and that it has always been opposition politicians and activists who have fallen victims to the law.

"This is definitely selective prosecution," Surendran told reporters outside the court.