Once again, it was a tight security affair with the courtroom locked and more than 20 police personnel deployed while lawyers were barred from bringing in their mobile phones.

The case being heard at the Johor Syariah Court of Appeal was that of Sultanah Tuanku Zanariah Tunku Ahmad, who is challenging the validity of her divorce.

Last August, she received a letter from Johor mufti Mohd Tahrir Syamsuddin informing her that her husband Sultan Mahmud Iskandar had divorced her.

The letter stated that the divorce took place in 2010 but had been backdated to Jan 23, 2009.

But the sultan had passed away on Jan 22, 2010 and was succeeded by his son from his first marriage, Tuanku Ibrahim Ismail (right) .

Following this, she also received a letter from former menteri besar Abdul Ghani Othman informing her that the sultanah title has been revoked.

This prompted her to mount a legal challenge.

The lower syariah court heard the matter without her presence and accepted the Johor Fatwa Committee’s edict that the divorce was valid. This was later upheld by the Syariah High Court.

When Tuanku Zanariah filed for an appeal, the Syariah Court of Appeal in March allowed the Johor Islamic Council to be an intervener in the suit.

Seven grounds to contest divorce

At the Syariah Court of Appeal this morning, Tuanku Zanariah furnished seven grounds to contest the previous decision.

The grounds were presented by her lawyer Afshah Ariffin before the court. A copy of the grounds obtained by Malaysiakini included:-

  • The Syariah High Court was wrong in accepting the evidence from former menteri besar Abdul Ghani (right) and Johor royal committee chairperson Tengku Osman Tunku Temenggong Ahmad via a statutory declaration when they are not parties in the divorce application. Furthermore, the late sultan was not a party in the proceeding as he had already passed away.

 

  • The Syariah High Court judge was wrong in deciding that the Syariah Procedure Code need not be applied as the court does not have the power to do so and it is wrong for this to be applied on Tuanku Zanariah as it violates her rights to seek natural justice.

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  • The Syariah High Court judge erred in accepting that the Lower Syariah court judge has the right to conduct the divorce proceeding as it was done without her presence.

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  • The Syariah High Court judge was wrong when he allowed the trial judge from following the procedure code in order to protect the dignity of the royal institution and accepting that the divorce proclamation had been made three times.

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  • In fact, the trial judge had tarnished the dignity of the institution by allowing the proceeding to go on without her presence.

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  • The Syariah High Court judge was wrong in accepting the fatwa by the Johor Islamic committee as a valid legal document.

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  • The Syariah High Court judge was also wrong in considering that the fatwa was binding on the court. The judge had made a mistake in deciding that Tuanku Zanariah had failed to amend or tried to have the fatwa declared null and void, when she did not know about the edict and only knew about it last year through a letter despite the fatwa was made in 2010.
    • The matter was heard by a three-member panel led by Syed Ali Syed Abu Bakar. The other two judges are Marsid @ Morsid Mahrof and Jainudin Mt Sum @ Munaj.

    Tuanku Zanariah's solicitor Kamar Ainiah Kamaruzaman (left) , who was barred from entering the courtroom, said that lawyers were not allowed to bring in their mobile phones.

    Tuanku Zanariah and her three daughters were not present at today's proceeding since they were  not allowed inside the court along with Kamar Ainiah in the last proceeding.

    This is Tuanku Zanariah's final opportunity to overturn the divorce. Initially, she had named her former husband as the respondent in her application.

    The two were married on Aug 19, 1961. It was Mahmud's second marriage and they have 10 children, including the one Tuanku Zanariah cared for from Mahmud's first wife.  

     

    Tuanku Zanariah claims that the divorce was not valid and wanted the lower syariah Court order to be set aside as she was not called for any divorce proceedings.

    She also sought the court to investigate whether Sultan Mahmud Iskandar's divorce proclamation in January 2009 that was allegedly witnessed by Abdul Ghani and Tengku Osman was valid based on a statutory declaration they made.

     

    "A person who passed away on Jan 22, 2010 does not have the legal capacity to initiate any court proceedings unless it is for the administration of his estate.

    "Furthermore, during his lifetime, the sultan had not filed for any divorce proceedings at any Johor syariah court against me," she said in her court documents.

    However, the Johor Syariah High Court had dismissed the review application and issued a gag order not to report it.

    The Syariah Court of Appeal would deliver its decision on May 25.