The High Court in Shah Alam today dismissed an application by Wanita Umno information chief Hamidah Osman to strike out a defamation suit filed by Shah Alam Member of Parliament Khalid Abdul Samad on the posting of an alleged ‘superimposed’ photograph of him clad in a priest’s robe which was posted on her blog.

Justice Zainal Azman Ab Aziz handed down the decision after finding that the case should be handled by the civil court and not the syariah court.

Hamidah had filed to strike out the suit on grounds that the case concerned issues on faith and therefore should be heard before the syariah court.

In his ruling, Zainal Azman said that if the issue raised in the suit concerned faith, the prosecution from the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) had the jurisdiction to prosecute Khalid.

“This is a normal defamation suit which touches on the credibility of the plaintiff. Hence, I found that the civil court should hear this case,” he added.

Last year, Khalid, who is also Selangor PAS commissioner III, filed a suit over the posting of a superimposed photograph of him on Hamidah’s blog, http://hamidahosman.blogspot.com , in January 2010.

In his statement of claim, Khalid said that the picture depicted him as a Christian priest and an apostate.

- Bernama