KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — Religious authorities are allowed to conduct raids and make arrests based on suspicion alone, the Magistrates’ Court was told today.
This, said Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) investigating officer Siti Nor Jihan Salleh, was based on Section 2 of the Syariah Criminal Procedure Code (Federal Territories) 1997 (SCPC).
However, the enforcement boundaries within Section 2 of the SCPC only allow for warrantless searches and arrests to be conducted after initial investigations, and if the offence allegedly being committed itself carries a jail sentence of one year or longer, as stipulated in the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997(SCO).
Siti Nor Jihan said this while being examined by Deputy Public Prosecutor Hafizza Sauni during the trial of lawyer and activist Siti Kasim.
Siti Kasim was charged and pleaded not guilty to voluntarily obstructing Jawi operations officer, Siti Nor Jihan, from discharging her public functions during a raid at the Renaissance Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on April 3, 2016.
Magistrate Maizatul Munirah Abd Rahman presided over the case, while Suzana Norlihan Alias was present as the lead defence counsel.
Siti Nor Jihan was responding to questions on the incident, after video recordings of the raid were produced in court, that depicted the accused demanding a warrant from the Jawi enforcers.
In recollecting the series of events, which took place that night, Siti Nor Jihan said, as revealed in the previous proceeding, the first piece of information received by Jawi on March 2016 was a complaint about an event where men dressed as women was expected to take place and said to be in the form of a pageant.
“We were informed by a member of the public requesting investigations be done that at an event, which violates Section 28 of the SCO, men would be dressed as women in a public place for immoral purposes.
“The complaint said it would take place at the Renaissance Hotel along Jalan Sultan Ismail on April 3,” she said.
Checks showed Section 28 of the SCO is an offence punishable with a maximum fine of RM1,000 and a maximum prison sentence of one year, therefore qualifying under Section 2 of the SCPC.
Siti Nor Jihan said, on April 3, Jawi personnel were alerted that the pageant was actually taking place, and were instructed to proceed to the location by the operations chief.
She said they arrived at the hotel at around 10.30pm, with 16 enforcement officers who then entered the hall where they were approached by a woman.
“We tried explaining to the woman why we were there and introduced ourselves as Jawi enforcement officers,
“The situation inside was very noisy and it got worse and more chaotic when the guests realised we (Jawi) were present,” she said.
Siti Nor Jihan said not much cooperation was offered to them as they tried to contain the chaos, saying people were running around the hall aimlessly.
She then told the court that the lack of cooperation compounded with the chaos hindered them from carrying out detailed checks on the participants.
The DPP then questioned Siti Nor Jihan on why they were unable to carry out the detailed checks.
“Because there was a woman constantly demanding for a warrant from us, even though we had explained many times the offence we were there to check was one that didn’t need a warrant.
“Our answers were not accepted; we were instead contested and questioned about our enforcement powers to carry out the checks,” answered Siti Nor Jihan.
She said the detailed checks would first see those present segregated by religion, as only Muslims are subject to Jawi’s enforcement.
The court set May 10 as the next trial date, where first examinations by the DPP are expected to continue.
