KUALA LUMPUR – A female activist has pleaded guilty to making insulting remarks about Christianity on her Facebook page last year at the Sessions Court yesterday (May 25), reported Malay Mail.
Wan Asshima Kamaruddin, an activist for the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Pondok Hijrah Muslimah Malaysia (MUM), was teary-eyed after she changed her previous plea to guilty.
She was accused of producing and initiating the transmission of offensive communications with the intention of offending others via a Facebook account named “Puteri Mujahidah Wan Asshima Kamaruddin” on March 11, 2021.
The post was later read at the Cyber and Multimedia Crime Investigation Division Office, Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department, Wangsa Maju, on March 13, 2021.
Wan Asshima was charged under Section 233 (1) (a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which is punishable under Section 233 (3) of the same act, where she faces a maximum fine of RM50,000 or a jai term not more than a year or both, along with an additional RM1,000 fine for each day the offence is repeated after conviction, if convicted.
Deputy public prosecutor Najihah Farhana Che Awang had earlier called for an appropriate sentence to act as a lesson for Wan Asshima and the public, adding that a total of 61 police reports were lodged against her nationwide.
The most complaints come from Sabah, Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. I also ask the court to consider this case which has entered the trial stage, with three prosecution witnesses having been called to testify, before the accused changes her plea to guilty.
However, Wan Asshima’s attorney Dorina Abdullah pleaded for leniency, saying that her client was the sole breadwinner of the family and had no intentions of harming the public with her post.
“My client is also going through a divorce. I seek the court’s sympathy in meting out the sentence,” she said.
The case has been set for hearing the facts and sentencing on June 15 by Judge MM Edwin Paramjothy.
Read our coverage on the controversy here:
Cover image: Daily Express and MalaysiaGazette
