KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 \u00a0(NNN-BERNAMA) \u2014 The Magistrate\u2019s Court here today acquitted and discharged lawyer-cum-activist Siti Kasim on a charge of obstructing a Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (JAWI) officer from discharging her public duty during an event (dinner) at a hotel in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Magistrate Tawfiq Affandy Chin made the decision, saying the prosecution failed to establish the case against Siti Kassim, whose real name is Siti Zabedah Kasim, 57, under Section 186 of the Penal Code at the end of the prosecution\u2019s case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Siti Kasim was charged with resisting arrest by Jawi officer Siti Nor Jihan Saleh @ Md Ghazali, 36, at a hotel here at 10.30 pm on April 3, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his decision, Tawfiq said the charge against the accused was flawed because the form of obstruction was not specifically stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cApart from that, from testimony during the trial, the prosecution witness agreed that the accused cooperated and there was no evidence to show that the accused had obstructed the JAWI officer from carrying out her duties during the dinner at the hotel,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tawfiq also said the action by the accused was as a lawyer in protecting her client when questioning the absence of an arrest warrant to conduct the raid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn this case, JAWI should conduct its operation according to the prescribed procedure, which is to produce the arrest warrant.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The raid was conducted for the offence of men acting like women which is an offence where an arrest cannot be made without a warrant, he said. “However, …\u00a0the offence, according to syariah crime, is an offence\u00a0that allows\u00a0arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAlthough the raid is based on public information, JAWI should conduct the operation courteously. The court finds that the event was conducted properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u201cTherefore, the court has acquitted and discharged the accused of the charge without having to call\u00a0for her defence,\u201d said Tawfiq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0It was learnt that the dinner was a closed-door event and involved the transgender community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Deputy public prosecutor\u00a0Nur Ashikin Mokhtar prosecuted, while Siti Kasim was represented by lawyers Suzana Norlihan Alias and\u00a0Rajsurian Pillai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawyer Arik Zakri Abdul Kadir held a watching brief for the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council, and lawyer Tay Kit Hoo for the Malaysian Bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 \u00a0(NNN-BERNAMA) \u2014 The Magistrate\u2019s Court here today acquitted and discharged lawyer-cum-activist Siti Kasim on a charge of obstructing a Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (JAWI) officer from discharging her public duty during an event (dinner) at a hotel in 2016. Magistrate Tawfiq Affandy Chin made the decision, saying the prosecution failed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":88631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288,300,318],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88627"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/88631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}