Chief Syariah judge appointed religious affairs minister

 

Chief Syariah Court Judge of Malaysia Mohd Na’im Mokhtar has been appointed as the religious affairs minister in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s cabinet.

He is the only cabinet member without a political party.

The 55-year-old is also the Syariah Judiciary Department director-general.

He was appointed in March 2019 by the then religious affairs minister Mujahid Yusof Rawa under the Pakatan Harapan administration. 

Prior to the appointment, he held the position of Selangor syariah chief judge and was previously a Syariah court judge in the Petaling district and Federal Territories 

Na’im (above) was once a member of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) committee and has also served as an adjunct professor at the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) in 2012. 

He was also awarded a Chevening fellowship at the University of Oxford for the year 2008, majoring in Islamic Studies, as well as a visiting fellowship at Harvard University in 2013. 

The senior judge was investigated by the police earlier in January over allegations that he sexually harassed a married woman in August 2020.

The woman lodged a report claiming she found the judge lying naked on her bed when he was visiting the woman's house, where she lived with her bedridden husband.

He was investigated under Section 354 of the Penal Code, which deals with offences pertaining to the use of criminal force or assault to outrage modesty.

However, he later lodged a counter-police report claiming that he was falsely accused.

Na’im filed a defamation suit in January against former Umno supreme council member Lokman Noor Adam earlier this year after the latter accused him of sexual harassment against several women, including a “Datin”.

Lokman later deleted all of the postings linked to the legal action from his Facebook and YouTube channels.

The civil suit was settled in March. Lokman apologised and expressed regret over his statements as part of the settlement. - Mkini