KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — The Sessions Court today fixed June 17 and 18 to hear the case of a senior citizen charged with insulting Prophet Muhammad and his wife, Saiditina Aishah, two months ago.
Judge MM Edwin Paramjothy fixed the date during mention of the case after deputy public prosecutor Muhamad Asyaraf Md Kamal informed that the prosecution and defence representing the accused, Wai Foo Sing were ready for the trial.
On February 27, the accused claimed trial to uploading a caricature that allegedly insulted Prophet Muhammad and his wife on his Facebook account under the name Foo Sing Wai, at 5pm on February 17.
The charge filed under Section 298 A (1) (a) of the Penal Code carries a maximum jail sentence of five years upon conviction.
Earlier, counsel Gerard Lazarus told the court that the defence would make a representation to seek for a lesser charge against his client.
Gerard also told the court that his client had lodged a police report claiming that he was beaten up during his one-week detention at the Sungai Buloh Prison after failing to pay the RM20,000 bail.
He said Wai’s family paid the bail on March 13, adding that his daughter lodged the report at the Klang Selatan Police Station on March 15.
In the same court, the judge also set April 26 for mention of the case involving Chow Mun Fai, 43, and Danny Antoni, 28, to enable the duo to appoint their lawyers.
Chow faced eight counts, one count of posting a statement that was likely to incite the Malays to commit any offence against the non-Malays and seven counts of uploading posts which could threaten the unity and harmony between Muslims and non-Muslims between 2.29pm and 7.06pm on March 2.
Danny, who is from Sarawak, was charged with two counts of using the profile page of ‘Danny A’antonio Jr’ and posting insulting statements against Prophet Muhammad, Islam and PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang on Facebook at 1.21am on January 9.
Danny and Chow were both denied bail. — Bernama
