KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 — Nancy Shukri personally felt that Perkasa’s Datuk Ibrahim Ali deserved to be punished for sedition over his bible-burning threat, the de facto law minister’s aide claimed in a Facebook exchange with a Sarawak constituent.

Defending the minister against the backlash that resulted from her informing Parliament that no charges will be filed against the Malay rights group’s leader for defending Islam, press secretary Syeliza Basri explained that the reply originated from the Attorney-General’s Chambers and not Nancy.

In a screen shot of Syeliza’s reply to Leslley Kalom on Facebook, which was sighted by Malay Mail Online, the former stressed that Nancy “had no authority to overrule the decision made by the AG”.

“Too bad it comes fr Sarawak minister becos she is the one carrying this burden becos she is the minister in charge of law whom operates within the scope of her powers.

“However, if u ask her personally, that wud not be her answer for sure. As a Muslim and with a mixed blood of bumi, she definitely too, share the same view as everybody that if there’s anyone who has qualified to suffer the wrath of sedition act, that person is none other than the racist IA,” read Syeliza’s purported reply yesterday, referring to Ibrahim as “IA”.

Leslley had earlier criticised Nancy for being the bearer of the news, saying that the act had shamed the people of Sarawak; it is believed that the aide was responding to his critical post.

Upon receiving the reply, Leslley shared the message and brought it to the attention of DAP’s Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching and the party’s communications officer, Medaline Chang.

Both Nancy and Syeliza could not be reached for comments.

Last week, Nancy had in a written reply to Bagan DAP MP Lim Guan Eng said that Ibrahim was not charged over his threat because the police had concluded that the latter was merely defending the sanctity of Islam, and had not intended to create religious chaos with his statement.

Nancy had said that the police’s probe had also found that Ibrahim’s statement was directed at individuals who had purportedly distributed bibles containing the word “Allah” to students, including the Malays, at Penang’s Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Jelutong.

This was roundly criticised by lawmakers and civil groups, and drew outraged response from the Christian Federation of Malaysia.

Following the backlash, Nancy deflected criticism by saying that the AGC had decided not to charge Ibrahim “after considering the outcome” of the police probe, and that the context of the latter’s speech was in line with the spirit of the Federal Constitution’s Article 11(4).

But the reply served to draw further attacks, landing the minister in heated exchanges on Twitter, including with Umno leader, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, who also took to criticising Putrajaya’s stand in the matter.

Under fire from critics, the first-term minister repeatedly told Twitter users that she had “never defended” Ibrahim in her recent parliamentary reply, but was merely passing the message by government agencies on the actions taken against the outspoken Malay rights group leader.