'Mentega Terbang' director and producer charged

The director and producer of the banned movie “Mentega Terbang” were charged at the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate’s Court today.

Mohd Khairianwar Jailani and Tan Meng Kheng claimed trial on the charge of intentionally hurting the religious feelings of others.

The offence under Section 298 of the Penal Code is punishable with a maximum of one year in jail, a fine or both.

Khairianwar (above, left), 31, is accused of committing the offence as director and scriptwriter of the movie on Feb 26 last year.

Tan, who is also a teacher, was alleged to have committed the offence in his capacity as producer of the controversial film on the same date.

The duo were alleged to have committed the offence at a unit at Diamond Regency, Jalan Semarak Api 2, Kuala Lumpur around 12.34pm.

They were accused of intentionally hurting the religious sentiments of other people via utterances and the placement of objects within sight of the people whose religious sentiment was allegedly hurt.

The duo were charged in separate courts, with Khairianwar before Magistrate Noorelynna Hanim Abd Halim, and Tan before Magistrate Aina Azahra Arifin.

First-time offenders, not a flight risk

During both open-court proceedings, deputy public prosecutor Abdul Malik Ayob applied for bail to be set at RM10,000, as well as for a gag order against both accused pending disposal of their cases.

Malik said the gag order is necessary for a fair trial as both accused allegedly spoke to the media several times about the case before being charged.

However, the duo's counsel N Surendran objected to this, adding that both are first-time offenders and deserved a lower bail.

The lawyer pointed out that a gag order is excessive for the case as both accused have given ample cooperation to the authorities during the investigation and are not a flight risk.

Surendran submitted that seeking a gag order is unusual as there is no evidence before the court that the accused's public statements could disrupt a fair trial.

Noorelynna allowed Khairianwar to be released on RM6,000 bail with one surety, while Aina granted RM6,500 bail to Tan with one surety.

The magistrates ordered both accused not to make public statements about the case pending disposal of the court case, and set March 14 for mention of both cases.

Noorelynna also ordered Khairianwar to report to the nearest police station once a month.

At the end of proceedings before both lower courts, Surendran informed that his clients would be filing an application under Section 30 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 to challenge the validity of Section 298 of the Penal Code.

The lawyer said the bid would be filed at the High Court.

The movie tells the story of 15-year-old Aishah, who in the face of her mother's death, gets drawn into exploring the concept of rebirth as contained in other religions.

Her father is also shown as a liberal character who has no issues with his daughter studying the holy scriptures of other religions in search of an answer.

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