Judge Dato Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid in delivering his ruling over the case via Zoom said the plaintiffs do not have the locus standi to file the application. — Malay Mail photo
KUCHING (Sept 27): The Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday dismissed the application of four civil societies and a political party for judicial review against the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Attorney-General (AG) over inaction in the case involving controversial preacher Syakir Nasoha.
Judge Dato Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid in delivering his ruling over the case via Zoom said the plaintiffs do not have the locus standi to file the application.
The civil societies are Global Human Rights Federation (GHRF), Sarawak Association for People’s Aspiration, Ex-Students of Chinese Schools, and Pertubuhan Malaysia Tamilar Munnetra Kalagam and Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS).
According to a press statement by GHRF deputy chairman Peter John Jaban yesterday, they are considering filing an appeal to the Court of Appeal against the ruling.
The judicial review application was filed sometime ago by the five following a ‘No Further Action’ (NFA) classification recorded by the police over the case against Syakir.
The plaintiffs, having filed the application via Messrs Gunaseelan and Associates, were seeking a court declaration of the refusal to act against Syakir as being ‘unlawful and an abuse of power on the part of the IGP and AG’.
Senior Federal Counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambal and Federal Counsel Noor Atiqah Zainal Abidin, who appeared for the AG, relied on the argument that the IGP should not have been made a party because the discretion to prosecute lay within the powers of the AG under Article 145 (3) of the Federal Constitution and also, that the decision not to prosecute was not reviewable.
The bone of contention was that recorded remarks by the preacher were allegedly offensive and/or showed seditious tendency.
For the record, Peter said the present case was not the first time that police reports over Muslim preachers allegedly insulting and making defamatory speeches and statements about non-Islamic religions had been classified as NFA.
Similar police reports were lodged by GHRF against preachers Zamri Vinoth Kalimuthu and Firdaus Wong Wai Hung, Idris Sulaiman and many others but no action were taken till to date, he added.
“GHRF which was supported by 62 other NGOs had also submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Putrajaya on March 10 this year but our efforts were in vain,” he claimed.