Appellate court to rule on private prosecution against 2 preachers

The Court of Appeal is set to make a ruling over whether an activist is allowed to commence private prosecution against two Muslim preachers who purportedly insulted non-Islamic religions and practices.

A three-person bench chaired by Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim reserved its decision today in the appeal by S Shashi Kumar over the lower court's refusal to proceed with the private prosecution bid under Section 133 of the Criminal Procedure Code against Muhammad Zamri Vinoth and Firdaus Wong.

The bench, also comprised of member judges Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali and Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, set June 7 for case management to fix a date to deliver their verdict over the activist’s appeal.

Under criminal law, private prosecution is a legal avenue whereby an individual lodges a complaint with a magistrate to get prosecutors from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to charge a targeted person in court.

In 2020, numerous police reports were lodged against the two Muslim converts. Shashi filed the private prosecution bid at the Shah Alam Magistrate’s Court on Jan 8, 2021.

However, on Sept 3, 2021, magistrate Mohamad Redza Azhar Rezali dismissed the application because the police investigation against Firdaus (above, right) had been NFA (No Further Action) and the probe against Zamri was still ongoing.

The Shah Alam High Court upheld the dismissal of the private prosecution bid last year.

The police were investigating the duo under Section 298A of the Penal Code for the offence of causing enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race.

The accused can be imprisoned for at least two years, with a maximum custodial term of five years.

SD and memorandum

It was reported that Shashi affirmed a statutory declaration (SD), where he said he lodged a police report against Firdaus in January 2018 after allegedly seeing several social media postings.

The activist said later that same year, he sent a memorandum to then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad as well as the Home Ministry, the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, and the National Unity Ministry, in addition to the Islamic Affairs Department and the AGC.

In a separate SD, Shashi said he had also lodged a police report against Zamri in June 2020, for purportedly insulting the practices of Hinduism on his Facebook account.

The Global Human Rights Federation president claimed that the police did not respond to his query over the status of the reports against the two preachers.

Firdaus is the president and founder of Multiracial Reverted Muslims.

Zamri is the president of Angkatan Skuad Mubaligh Malaysia and CEO of One Centre Malaysia.

Counsel S Ravichandran represented Shashi, while deputy public prosecutor Solehah Noratikah Ismail appeared for the prosecution. - Mkini