I'll never return to Malaysia, even if they roll out a red carpet: Alvin Tan

Controversial blogger Alvin Tan Jye Yee vowed to never return to Malaysia, despite being freed of a sedition charge.

Tan told The Rakyat Post that he is "having a blast in America" and Malaysia was history to him.

"I won't return even if they roll out a red carpet for me and popped some champagne for me.

"Returning is out of the question, no matter how many charges they drop.

"I am not returning, even until my death. I don’t believe that it will ever be safe to return," the news portal quoted him as saying.

He also said the decision on the dropped charges came too late.

"It is my personal principle never to return to a country where its government and people have done so much irreversible harm to me," he said.

The controversial blogger and his former girlfriend Vivian Lee on Wednesday had been cleared on a charge of causing religious enmity among the people of various faiths by uploading pictures which ridiculed the Muslims during Ramadan on their Facebook.

This followed a decision by a five-member panel of the Federal Court in unanimously dismissing the prosecution's appeal on grounds that the (Federal) court had no jurisdiction to hear the case.

The prosecution was appealing against a Court of Appeal's verdict to throw out the charge against the duo.

Justice Tan Sri Abdull Hamid Embong, who chaired the panel, allowed a preliminary objection raised by the duo's counsel, Chong Joo Tian who argued that the Federal Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear the prosecution's appeal.

Tan and Lee had filed an application at the High Court to drop the charge (of allegedly causing religious enmity) under section 298A (1)(a) of the Penal Code as they claimed that the said section did not apply to non-Muslims and thus could not be enforced on them.

They were alleged to have committed the offence at a restaurant in Dang Wangi on July 11 and 12, 2013.

The couple lost their bid at the High Court, but succeeded in their appeal at the Court of Appeal on April 21, last year, to strike out the charge.

The prosecution subsequently filed the appeal at the Federal Court.