KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Berjaya Books Sdn Bhd today expressed gratitude following the Federal Court’s dismissal of the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department’s (JAWI) bid to appeal a lower court ruling favouring Borders bookstore manager Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz, but insisted that the long drawn out legal ordeal had been unnecessary in the first place.
Berjaya Books Sdn Bhd director Yau Su Peng added that Nik Raina, who was also thankful that the ordeal was over, should never have had to endure the three-year long legal struggle that had put a strain on her as well as her family.
“Nik Raina and her family have had to endure the brunt of mental stress and anguish throughout this period.
“This unfair and unjust prosecution of both Nik Raina and Borders was an unnecessary waste of energy and resources on the part of the various public authorities including the Attorney General’s Chambers,” Yau said in a statement today.
Yau added that while the legal battle was finally over, it was still at an “enormous personal and financial cost.”
In the same statement, Nik Raina was quoted thanking her employer for sticking up for her through the 39-month long ordeal, although a guilty plea would have been a simpler and more economical move.
“It would have been cheaper and more convenient for the company to leave me to plead guilty.
“My boss Ms Yau Su Peng was adamant that I not be exposed to that risk,” she was quoted as saying.
Yau also expressed hope that Borders’ defending Nik Raina would inspire other employers to stand up for their employees who may be wrongly prosecuted while on the job.
“Borders would like to believe that this prolonged prosecution and our defence of Nik Raina has not been for naught and that it will give heart to other employers to stand by their employees if they should be prosecuted for merely doing their jobs,” she said.
Earlier today, the panel of three judges led by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria at the country’s apex court unanimously dismissed JAWI’s appeal and agreed that the Court of Appeal’s decision declaring as illegal the Muslim authorities’ raid on the Borders bookstore over the sale of Irshad Manji’s “Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta” book, stood.
Last May, JAWI dropped its bid at the Shariah courts to continue its prosecution against Nik Raina, which means that today’s Federal Court decision has marked the end of the bookstore manager’s arduous legal battle.
JAWI had arrested Nik Raina in 2012 well before Irshad Manji’s “Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta” book was banned, later charging her over the selling of the Malay translation that the Islamic authority considered to be against Islamic laws.
Charged under Section 13 (1) of the Shariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territory) Act, Nik Raina could have landed in jail for up to two years or be fined RM3,000 if convicted.
Last December, the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Nik Raina, stating that JAWI’s prosecution against her simply because she was a Muslim and because it could not charge the company and her non-Muslim supervisor was “unreasonable, irrational” and against the “principle of fairness and justice”.
