Appellate court blocks bid to compel action against preacher

The Court of Appeal has denied an attempt to obtain leave for a judicial review to compel the attorney-general (AG) and inspector-general of police (IGP) to prosecute Muslim preacher Syakir Nasoha for alleged inflammatory remarks.

The court dismissed the appeal by the Global Human Rights Federation (GHRF), Parti Bangsa Dayak Sarawak, Sarawak Association for People’s Aspiration, Ex-Students of Chinese Schools, and Pertubuhan Malaysia Tamilar Munnetra Kalagam.

Lawyer T Gunaseelan, who appeared for the applicants, told Malaysiakini that judges Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh and Hashim Hamzah, in their majority decision, held that the judicial review bid did not satisfy the stipulated thresholds.

The lawyer said the majority view deemed that at the current leave stage, the AG does not need to file an affidavit in reply to the applicant’s claims, as it instead appears as a party representing the court.

Judge Wong Kian Kheong, who delivered a summary of his sole dissenting judgment, said the applicants had met the low threshold for leave.

“(Wong) held that the fact that the judicial review named the IGP was not detrimental,” Gunaseelan added, noting that the judge’s full grounds of judgment should be made available to the applicants’ legal team soon.

The lawyer also said that he has received instructions to escalate the applicants’ bid to the Federal Court.

The five groups initially filed their legal action in September 2022 over the authorities’ classification of a case against Syakir, involving the preacher’s 2017 speech at Masjid Abu Bakar in Sungai Petani, Kedah, as no further action (NFA).

However, a year later, the High Court denied the groups’ leave to proceed with the judicial review, with Judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid ruling that the applicants failed to provide prima facie (strong evidence) that the AG made the NFA with mala fide (bad faith).

The judge pointed out then that the AG’s decision was based on the authorities’ finding that the uploaded portion of Syakir’s speech, which made the rounds on social media, had been edited from its original content.

Ahmad Kamal also ruled that the judicial review wrongly named the IGP as one of two respondents targeted by the judicial review, as the top cop was not the decision maker behind the NFA.

In December 2021, a memorandum signed by close to 60 multiracial civil society groups was handed to Bukit Aman, questioning the delay in arresting Syakir for his remarks.

At the time, Syakir was being probed under Section 505(c) of the Penal Code for making a statement with intent to incite, or which is likely to invite any class or community of persons, to commit any offence against any other class or community of persons, and also Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1988 on the misuse of net facilities or network services.

The investigation came after a video clip of Syakir appearing to remark that “at the end of time, disciples of non-Muslim religions will be scrambling together to kill Muslims in the world” was widely circulated online.

The preacher reportedly referred to Hindus, Buddhists, and Dayaks wanting to destroy Muslims.

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