KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — Another individual has come under Putrajaya’s sedition scope — this time, human rights lawyer Edmund Bon — whose firm confirmed today is being investigated for his reported remarks on a fatwa.
New Sin Yew from Bon Advocates said Bon is being probed for comments he made to news portal The Malaysian Insider that were published in a January 20, 2014 article titled “Bukan Islam tidak perlu patuh kepada titah Diraja atau fatwa” (Non-Muslims do not have to obey royal decrees or fatwa).
“I have spoken to the IO from Penang,” New told Malay Mail Online today, using the initials for investigating officer.
He added that Bon will meet with the police some time next week.
Bon, who is currently in Bangkok and scheduled to return to Malaysia next Tuesday, told Malay Mail Online in a text message today: “I feel thrilled, and it makes me feel like going for a Walk.”
In The Malaysian Insider article, Bon was quoted as remarking on Kedah Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzan Shah who had said that only Muslims have the right to call God “Allah”.
The state ruler, who is also the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, reminded all parties last January that the National Fatwa Council had already ruled in 1986 that several words, including the Arabic word “Allah”, can only be used exclusively by Muslims, while non-Muslims are banned from uttering them.
The Malaysian Insider quoted Bon as saying that the decree cannot be applied to non-Muslims as it violates their religious rights.
Bon is the third lawyer in recent times to be hauled up under the Sedition Act 1948, a colonial era law that has been used against opposition lawmakers, students, an academic, a journalist and even a preacher.
PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s lawyer, N. Surendran, was charged last month with sedition for criticising the Court of Appeal’s ruling that found his client guilty of sodomy.
The late veteran lawyer Karpal Singh was convicted of sedition last February over his remarks on the Perak Sultan’s role in the 2009 state constitutional crisis.
