KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — The Home Ministry will not appeal the order to return eight compact discs containing the word “Allah” to Sarawak Christian Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill and will abide by the court’s instructions “soon”, a lawyer for the government confirmed today.
The lawyer, Shamsul Bolhassan, did not specify, however, when the CDs will be returned to the Bumiputera Christian although the deadline given by the Court of Appeal had expired last month.
“We are in the process of giving it back. No issue on that,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted, confirming that the Attorney-General’s Chambers had already “directed” the Home Ministry to return the CDs.
On June 23, the Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s decision when ruling unanimously in favour of Jill Ireland and ordering the Home Ministry to return the CDs it had seized from the Melanau native in 2008.
The Court of Appeal had given a one-month deadline ending July 23 for the CDs to be returned, but Jill Ireland’s lawyer Annou Xavier had confirmed that the materials were not given back then.
When asked if the government will be appealing against the Court of Appeal ruling in June, Shamsul said no appeal will be filed, telling Malay Mail Online: “We are not proceeding.”
Despite spending almost seven years locked in a legal dispute with the Home Ministry, Jill Ireland’s battle in the courts is not entirely over yet.
Having won the return of the eight CDs, Jill Ireland will still have to return to the Kuala Lumpur High Court, where it will decide on two constitutional issues relating to her right to religious freedom and equality before the law.
One of the constitutional matters is Jill Ireland’s application for a court declaration that she has the right to import the CDs, as provided for by the Federal Constitution’s Article 8 that guarantees freedom of religion.
This would involve her right to practise her own religion and right to education.
The High Court will also decide on Jill Ireland’s bid for a declaration that the Constitution’s Article 11 guarantees her equality before the law and protection from discrimination on grounds of religion in the administration of law ― especially the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and the Customs Act 1967.
The whole legal dispute was sparked off by the Home Ministry’s 2008 seizure of Jill Ireland’s eight CDs at the Sepang airport upon her return from Indonesia.
Following the May 11, 2008 seizure, Jill Ireland filed for judicial review in August the same year against the Home Minister and the government of Malaysia.
On July 21 last year, High Court judge Datuk Zaleha Yusof ruled that the Home Ministry was wrong to detain the CDs based on a point of law, also ordering the government to return the CDs and pay RM5,000 in legal costs.
