Adam Adli, pictured here in September 2013, said his sentencing had only given him "another reason to continue my fight," encouraging his social media followers to "keep calm and stay seditious." (Facebook/Adam Adli)

Adli was convicted of sedition charges Friday in a Kuala Lumpur court, as a judge said that the defense had failed to produce unreasonable doubt against him, reported The Star. 

The 25-year-old activist said the sentencing had only solidified his campaign to repeal the law. “What happened today gives me another reason to continue my fight,” he told reporters after his hearing. “These twelve months in prison proves that the Sedition Act is used to punish anyone with difference in opinion.”

Shortly before his sentencing, Adli had posted a selfie to his Instagram and Facebook accounts, presumably taken in the courtroom. “Keep calm and be seditious! #MansuhAktaHasutan” read the caption, in reference to a grassroots campaign to abolish the 1948 law, which critics say has enabled a virile and arbitrary crackdown on dissidents. 

That same day, media reports and advocacy groups said “another victim” was claimed in an arrest for creating a “parody Facebook page” of a Malay secret society organization, called Persatuan Kongsi Gelap Melayu. 

In an “extraordinary general meeting” of the Malaysian Bar Council called Friday, more than 700 lawyers voted to march in opposition to the Sedition Act, in a rally that would be organized “as soon as possible,” said president Christopher Leong.

By all accounts, Adli’s 12-month term likely makes his penalty the highest in the past year, which has seen the prosecutions of at least 13 others, according to Human Rights Watch. Those convicted are subject to up to five years imprisonment or a fine of RM 5,000 (US$1,600).

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