Syariah High Court defers decision on Kassim’s case

The Syariah High Court in Putrajaya has deferred in delivering its decision on scholar Kassim Ahmad today, after the prosecution informed the court they had already filed an application for leave to appeal at the Federal Court.

This was despite the prosecution having yet to apply for a stay of the Court of Appeal decision which ruled the arrest by the Federal Territories Islamic Department (Jawi) as unlawful.

Jawi filed the application for leave at the 11th hour on the last day of the 30-day period from the Court of Appeal’s decision that was made on Jan 20.

Following this, Syariah High Court judge Azzeman Omar fixed Nov 1 for mention pending the apex court decision on the matter.

He was charged with insulting Islam two years ago at a talk held at Yayasan Perdana.

Azzeman said in the interests of justice he is awaiting the decision to be made by the Federal Court.

Kassim was represented by lawyer Rosli Dahlan.

When met outside the court, the 82-year-old Kassim questioned the prosecution’s decision to file for leave to appeal.

“I am already an octogenarian at 82, and it is becoming a problem for me to travel down to Putrajaya for a five-hour car ride or an eight-hour bus ride here from my house in Kulim,” he said.

On Dec 31, the Court of Appeal, in ruling that the arrest, detention and hence prosecution were unlawful, also awarded Kassim RM22,000 in damages.

The Court of Appeal’s Justice Vernon Ong, who delivered the unanimous decision of the three-person bench, said that there were changes made to the arrest warrant used against Kassim, which made the process null and void.

“We order that the arrest, detention and prosecution are null and void,” he said in allowing Kassim’s appeal against a High Court ruling.

The bench also held that the civil High Court had supervisory jurisdiction over an inferior tribunal, including the Syariah Court, when it had erred in law.

It was previously reported that Jawi officers had broken down Kassim’s house door during his arrest at Kulim. Kassim was then brought to the Penang airport for a flight to the KL International Airport.

Jawi is supposed to have jurisdiction in only the Federal Territories and it had gone to various jurisdictions namely Kedah, Penang and Selangor for the arrest as contended by Kassim’s lawyers. -Mkini