De facto law minister Dr Rais Yatim today said the issue of possible sub judice does not arise with the controversial Memali broadcast as there is no on-going court case related to the event.

As far as I know, there is no case of Memali happening now. So how can a sub judice case arise? In the situation, I summarise that others should not give these opinions, said the minister in the Prime Ministers Department at a press conference this morning.

According to Rais, sub judice occurs only when any of the parties involved in an on-going court case interferes or influences the decision of the court.

Sub judice is a very big area and I dont think that anyone should opine in the manner as if he is a judge. We can only take that from the court and not from somebody else, he added.

Rais was commenting on a statement by DAP deputy chairperson Karpal Singh last Friday urging Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail to order that the Memali broadcast be ceased as a court case on the 1985 incident is still pending.

Karpal said the Alor Setar High Court will be hearing the Memali case on April 23. Fourteen cases have been filed by Memali villagers against then home minister Musa Hitam, claiming negligence of police forces.

The 30-minute programme, which depicted the bloody clash between police forces and villagers in Memali, has been shown a few times over the state-run Radio Television Malaysia since Jan 31.

In the incident, villagers were overwhelmed by security forces in a clash resulting in the deaths of four police personnel and 14 villagers.

The government has claimed that a local religious teacher, Ibrahim Libya, who was killed in the tragedy, had incited the Memali villagers to take up arms against government forces and that he was linked to PAS, an opposition party.

Bring case to court

The minister today said should there be an ongoing case, the government will ensure that ministers do not comment officially on the matter so as not to influence the process of law.

I think we have not done anything and I do not agree that anybody is now sub judiced , he said.

Rais went on to say that any party dissatisfied with the issue can bring their case to court and the government will face the cases as they come.

So far no party has come forward to say that they had been prejudiced [against].

I dare say that the debated clip has no bearing on whatever actions or claims, he said.

Rais, who was the information minister when the clashes broke out, said that the tragedy showed the result of misunderstanding or misuse of religion.

He also asserted that the RTM broadcast was based on accurate reports made by Musa on the incident.

Last Friday, Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin was quoted in newspapers as saying that RTM would continue the broadcast of the Memali programme.