PUTRAJAYA, Nov 8 — Independent publisher Mohd Ezra Mohd Zaid who is challenging his Shariah prosecution and seizure of books deemed un-Islamic will have to wait till April 24 next year to get a hearing at the Court of Appeal.
A three-judge panel comprising Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Tan Sri Idrus Harun and Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan were scheduled to hear Mohd Ezra’s appeal against a March 2018 High Court ruling.
Instead, they were told that Mohd Ezra’s lead counsel Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram who is representing ZI Publications Sdn Bhd, had asked for an adjournment as he is currently tied up handling the prosecution of Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
The judges gave the new hearing date after that.
“He applied for adjournment because he is handling the Rosmah trial and that’s fixed this morning in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court,” Mohd Ezra’s other lawyer Fahri Azzat later told Malay Mail, referring to Gopal’s request for deferment.
Rosmah, wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was slapped with 17 charges of money laundering amounting to RM14 million at the Sessions Court last month.
Today happened to be the date fixed for her case management. Gopal was appointed the lead prosecutor.
Mohd Ezra’s appeal is against the High Court’s judgment that the seizure of several books by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) in 2012 and a Shariah prosecution against him was valid and legal.
The High Court had in March this year judged that the seizure and the subsequent Shariah provision used to prosecute Mohd Ezra was deemed as constitutional.
The seizure and religious prosecution was over the publication of the Bahasa Malaysia translation of Allah, Liberty and Love by Canadian writer Irshad Manji, by ZI Publications, Mohd Ezra’s publishing firm.
* A previous version of this story contained errors which have since been corrected.
