AG, IGP taken to court over decision not to prosecute Muslim preacher

Five groups have filed a judicial review over the decision by the attorney-general and inspector-general of police not to prosecute Muslim preacher Syakir Nasoha for his allegedly inflammatory remarks against non-Muslims.

Global Human Rights Federation (GHRF) president S Shashi Kumar said the review was filed following a reply he received from Bukit Aman on June 17, stating that the case against Syakir (above) has been classified as “no further action” (NFA) after the investigation papers were submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

“But here they are only talking about one video which is enough to convict Syakir under the Sedition Act. What about the other three videos?” Shashi asked in a statement today.

He was referring to remarks made by Syakir in four videos posted on social media.

The GHRF president claimed the contents of the videos propagate “racism, fanaticism and extremism”.

The case management for the judicial review is set to be heard at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today.

The groups involved in the case, aside from GHRF, are Parti Bangsa Dayak Sarawak, Sarawak Association for People’s Aspiration, Ex-Students of Chinese Schools and Pertubuhan Malaysia Tamilar Munnetra Kalagam.

The applicants are seeking a declaration that the refusal to act against Syakir was unlawful and an abuse of power on the part of the police and the AG.

They are also seeking an order of mandamus to compel the authorities to act against the preacher as, according to the applicants, the AG had failed to carry out his duties and his decision was arbitrary and violated Article 8 of the Federal Constitution.

Reports lodged against other preachers

Shashi further claimed that Syakir’s case is not the first time reports lodged against similar cases have ended up being classified as NFA.

He said reports were also lodged against other religious preachers who have allegedly made inflammatory remarks as well, such as Zamri Vinoth Kalimuthu, Firdaus Wong Wai Hung and Idris Sulaiman.

However, there have been no updates on these cases from the police since the reports were lodged, he said.

“Why such double standards?” Shashi questioned while pointing to Articles 8(1) and 8(2) of the Federal Constitution.

Article 8(1) states that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law while 8(2) states that there shall be no discrimination against citizens on the ground only of religion, race, descent, place of birth or gender in any law.

Back in Dec 2021, a memorandum jointly signed by close to 60 multiracial civil society groups was handed over to Bukit Aman, questioning the delay in arresting Syakir for his remarks.

At the time, Syakir was being probed under Section 505(c) of the Penal Code for making a statement with intent to incite or which is likely to invite any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community of persons and also Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1988 for abuse of net facilities or network services.

In his statement today, Shashi said they have decided to take this matter up to the court after all their other efforts were unsuccessful throughout the BN, Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional (PN) administrations.

“We have currently three active cases pending in the court with regard to insulting non-Islamic religions in this country by irresponsible Muslim preachers,” he said.

Shashi also questioned multiracial political parties such as those from Harapan as well as Muda on their stand in these matters, as he said they have been keeping silent thus far.

“GE15 is just a couple of weeks away and we want to see them voicing out for the entire Malaysians.

“A racial hatred bill must be tabled in Parliament for the sake of peace, unity and harmony of fellow Malaysians,” he said. - Mkini