KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 — In its final chance to seek legal recourse, an Islamic agency has filed a last-minute attempt with the Federal Court to overturn a ruling that it had acted illegally and unconstitutionally by prosecuting a Muslim bookstore employee over a banned book.

According to court documents sighted by Malay Mail Online, the Federal Territories Islamic Affairs Department (JAWI) filed for leave of appeal two days ago, just in time to make the 30-day deadline to appeal the Court of Appeal’s December 30 ruling in favour of Borders bookstore branch manager Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz.

Lawyer Rosli Dahlan confirmed that government lawyers served Nik Raina’s legal team yesterday with the application for leave of appeal.

“No wonder we did not receive any reply to our letter requesting for the Shariah case to be withdrawn.

“It seems JAWI will not let this matter rest. My heart goes out to Nik Raina. I can’t see the sense of all this,” the lawyer told Malay Mail Online when contacted today.

Malay Mail Online understands that Borders had written to JAWI after the bookstore’s victory at the Court of Appeal last December 30, asking the authority to drop the charge.

In JAWI’s application, senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan urged the apex court to consider whether a civil action can be used to review the prosecution of a criminal case, especially when the offence is “against the precepts of Islam”.

He also questioned whether it is possible to take action under Shariah law against a corporate entity that is “incapable of professing a religion”, and whether action by a religious authority that leads to prosecution in the Shariah Court can be challenged in the civil court.

Following JAWI’s latest move, Nik Raina has no choice but to wait until the entire process is over before she finds out if she can finally get a Shariah charge against her dropped.

On June 19, 2012, Nik Raina was charged under Section 13 (1) of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territory) Act for allegedly selling and distributing a book that is contrary to the Islamic laws. If convicted, she can be fined up to RM3,000 or jailed up to two years, or both.

On December 30 last year, the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier High Court decision against JAWI, unanimously ruling that JAWI had acted unconstitutionally when it seized copies of a book during a raid on the Borders bookstore branch where Nik Raina is the manager, three weeks before it was officially banned.