Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mujahid Yusof Rawa today denied that he had ordered the transfer of Zamihan Mat Zin from the Home Ministry to the Islamic Development Department Malaysia (Jakim).  

Mujahid said the controversial Islamic preacher’s transfer had been entirely organised by the Home Ministry.

“I did not know there was such an order. (That is a) matter with the Home Ministry,” he said in a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after returning from Mecca.

Following Mujahid’s appointment as a minister, Zamihan alleged that he had been ordered to move from the Home Ministry to Jakim within 24 hours.

Mujahid, as the minister in charge of religious affairs, also oversees Jakim.

Zamihan said he himself did not know the source of the order to be relocated back to Jakim.

He added that his efforts to obtain further explanation regarding the issue from the human resources division had also failed.

Zamihan was a member of a Home Ministry panel tasked with rehabilitating detainees held under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).

Previously, he was a senior assistant director at Jakim before being seconded to the Home Ministry to oversee religious publications, and was then placed in the Prisons Department as an officer to rehabilitate and deradicalise terrorists and extremists.

Prior to this, Deputy Home Minister Mohd Azis Jamman confirmed that the Prisons Department had ended Zamihan’s contract as a rehabilitation officer.

Mujahid said he will wait for the Home Ministry to release a statement before commenting further on Zamihan’s transfer to Jakim.  

“I also received the news (of Zamihan’s transfer) in Mecca. I still need information.

“I think the Home Ministry will also give a statement because they took him (Zamihan) from us. We will wait first,” he said.