Lawyer: Unfair for Shariah prosecutors to target Ezra Zaid just because powerless over company

• Published date: 05 December 2017
• Publication title: Malay Mail Online

The Selangor Shariah prosecutors acted unfairly by charging Mohd Ezra Mohd Zaid over a book deemed unIslamic just because they have no powers to act against his publishing firm, the High Court was told today.

Ezra's lawyer K. Shanmuga noted that Shariah authorities have no jurisdiction over companies who cannot profess religion, noting that his client was charged in the Shariah court because he is a director of the publisher ZI Publications Sdn Bhd.

'Under our constitutional system, the Shariah authorities only have authority over individuals who profess the religion of Islam,' he told the court.

'I also say that it is trite that a company is incapable of professing religion, only natural persons is capable of that,' he later added.

While noting that most Shariah enforcement and Shariah court cases involved straightforward matters, Shanmuga said Ezra's case falls within the exceptional situation where the actions of public officers should be challenged in and decided by the civil courts.

'But in this rare instance, exceptional circumstance where Shariah enforcement officers overstepped their boundaries, it's to this court (civil courts) we come. That's what happened in Berjaya Books and Kassim Ahmad,' he said.

'Exceptional circumstances is Shariah authorities acted...