Cops say Neelofa, husband should be fined over wedding SOP breaches, but decision in AGC’s hands

KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 — The police has recommended to the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) for local celebrity Neelofa and her televangelist husband PU Riz to be fined for allegedly breaking Covid-19 restrictions with their March 27 wedding, a report said.

Dang Wangi district police chief ACP Mohamad Zainal Abdullah was quoted saying that the police’s investigation papers on the case has been submitted to the AGC, and that it is the AGC that will decide whether there would be any prosecution.

“The police have given recommendations for a fine,” he was quoted saying by local daily Harian Metro.

Neelofa, whose actual name is Noor Neelofa Mohd Noor, had married Muhammad Haris Mohd Ismail or PU Riz as he is known, at the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur hotel on March 27, with some 200 guests reportedly attending the event.

Videos and images of guests at their wedding failing to practice physical distancing while sitting shoulder-to-shoulder were later circulated on social media.

The wedding was also attended by Islamic affairs minister Datuk Zulkifli Mohamad, who had since refused to comment over the alleged rule-breaking in the event.

On March 28, Dang Wangi police chief Mohamad Zainal said the police had opened an investigation paper under Section 21A of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act into the alleged failure to comply with standard operating procedures (SOPs) to curb Covid-19 and the lack of physical distancing during Neelofa’s wedding ceremony.

Under Section 21A, an offence can be compounded with up to RM10,000 fine.

Neelofa and her husband had also recently stirred controversy when the newlyweds were photographed enjoying watersports activities on the holiday island of Langkawi in Kedah shortly after their wedding.

Police had said that the permit for interstate travel to Langkawi issued to Neelofa and three others were only for work purposes and not for a honeymoon, with the police also launching investigations on the couple to determine if they had been honeymooning at Langkawi and therefore in breach of Covid-19 SOPs.

Neelofa had initially said she does not have to justify her trip to the public, and had even mocked critics by saying that they had given her free publicity with their criticisms over the affair.

As the public backlash failed to subside, she was later reported apologising over any SOP breaches in the two matters, whether such breaches were done knowingly or beyond her knowledge.