Controversial academician Kassim Ahmad passed away at the Kulim hospital this morning, with his lawyer Rosli Dahlan, who represented the octogenarian in his syariah and judicial review cases, describing him as a great Malaysian.

Rosli said he received a WhatsApp message on the death, from Kassim's son Ahmad Syauqi, and also an email from the late academician's daughter in Australia calling for him to go all out to seek justice for her father.

The lawyer said Kassim's health deteriorated following the court battle that he had to face in the Syariah Court, and also in the civil court, after the Federal Court dismissed the appeal by the Federal Territory Islamic Department (Jawi) and ruled that Kassim’s arrest and charges were not proper.

“Despite this, when he was in the Syariah Court, the prosecution did not want to withdraw the charge against him because it said it did not have a chief prosecutor who can decide on this. Where is the compassion, as stated in Islam, in the religious department, bearing in mind there is the Federal Court decision?” Rosli said.

“It was only after I submitted before the Syariah High Court judge, that the court decided to drop the prosecution on Kassim, a couple of months ago,” he added.

Rosli said Kassim had confided in him that he was dejected (kecewa) with all the “muslihat” (trickery) that Jawi was doing to prolong the case.

Kassim was charged in the Syariah High Court in Putrajaya in 2014 with three counts of deriding Islam and a charge of breaching a fatwa in a talk he gave in Putrajaya three years ago.

Following the talk, Kassim was arrested by Jawi at his house in Kulim, Kedah, taken to Penang and escorted on a flight to KLIA in Sepang, Selangor, where he was detained for more than 24 hours without legal representation.

Kassim challenged his arrest and the charges against him in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, but failed. The court ruled that his remedy could only be found in the Syariah court.

On appeal to the Court of Appeal, both the octogenarian's arrest at his home in Kulim, and subsequently being brought to Kuala Lumpur to be charged, were declared illegal and the arrest was also ruled to be null and void.

Continuous prosecution of others

The academician challenged the charge and arrest on grounds that Jawi only had jurisdiction in the Federal Territory and not in Kedah, and by bringing him to Penang, Selangor and then to Kuala Lumpur, it showed that Jawi had violated various jurisdictions as Islam falls under the state jurisdiction.

Rosli (photo) said despite the charge being dropped by the Syariah High Court following the Federal Court decision, Kassim was not elated. The lawyer said it was as if Kassim knew that his time was closing.

Despite what had happened with Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz and Kassim, Rosli pointed out the people were still seeing continuous prosecution by Jawi, with its actions against Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol and Islamic Renaissance Front head Farouk Musa.

Rosli, who had represented Nik Raina and would be representing Farouk, who is scheduled to be charged in December, said it was as if the religious authorities “have not learned their lesson”.

“With these people being charged, it is as if the religious authorities are trying to curb free thinking among Muslims, including academicians. They seem to want to control the Malays and Muslims. This is the level the country has descended to,” he said.

Rosli said Kassim's civil case to assess damages following the hardship he faced after his arrest, despite his frail condition, was yet to be called.

Jawi, he added has not made any offer to compensate, despite the court finding its actions to be wrong in the eyes of the law.