Border Manager Fails To Get Charge Again Her Dropped.

NIK RAINA NIK ABDUL AZIZ, the manager of Borders bookstore, has failed in her attempt to get the charge against her for distributing a 'banned' book by Canadian author Irshad Manji dropped.
 Syariah judge Abdul Walid Abu Hassan dismissed the application after ruling that the civil High Court's judicial review decision in finding the charge groundless, should not be used to interfere in Syariah court proceedings. He said Nik Raina has not been tried and it was up to the Syariah prosecutor to prove their case whether the book was against the Islamic law (Hukum Syarak).
 The judge then stayed the trial pending appeal by the prosecutor in the judicial review. Nik Raina, 36, was accused on June 19 last year of distributing Manji's Bahasa Malaysia translation of the book titled "Allah, Liberty and Love". She was alleged to have committed the offence on May 23 last year at the Borders bookshop at Level 3, The Gardens Mall, in Mid Valley City. On March this year, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur found the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department (JAWI) to have acted illegally in raiding the bookstore and seizing the books.
 The High Court also found that it had acted illegally in charging Nik Raina in the syariah court. Prosecutor Che Saufi Che Hussein told the judge that while they respected the civil High Court's decision in ordering Jawi to drop the charge against Nik Raina, it was up to the Syariah court to decide on the matter. Counsel Rosli Dahlan, representing Nik Raina, said the Syariah court has the jurisdiction to drop the charge against his client as the charge was groundless.
 He said the Syariah court had also stayed the trial pending the disposal of the judicial review application. "At the judicial review, the civil high court had also dismissed the prosecutor's application for a stay pending their appeal," he said. "We should maintain a harmonious environment so that these two courts won't clash." But judge Abdul Walid said Nik Raina's attempt to drop the charge by taking it to the civil court was a dangerous precedent.
 "Civil courts cannot interfere with Syariah court matters, and vice versa. But what I see here... it's as if she (Nik Raina) was using the civil court to stop the Syariah court. That, would now be a problem," he said, adding that people would now go to civil court to stop proceedings at the Syariah court. As such, he said there would now be two conflicting orders. "Is it reasonable for the high court to stop the Syariah court and the Syarie prosecutor from executing it's powers to prosecute?
 Besides, this matter is still pending at appeal. "The accused (Nik Raina) should instead be ready to defend her case and if she is proven innocent, she will be acquitted," he said. He said the case has not even gone to trial. "Let the prosecutors prove their case," added Abdul Wahid. The judge stood his ground despite Rosli's repeated attempts to explain that the High Court's decision was not used to interfere with the trial. Rosli later told reporters that he was disappointed with the decision, describing it a "constitutional crisis".
 He said the matter at the civil High Court was procedural as the said bookstore was raided even before the book's banning. "It was because of that, the civil high court felt the charge was procedurally wrong. This would now lead to a constitutional crisis. I am just worried that there might be an apparent bias against my client," he added. The case is a classic case of the country’s parallel systems of civil and Islamic laws, the latter binding on the majority Malay-Muslim population.
 Following Nik Raina's charging at the Syariah court, Borders owner Berjaya Books obtained an order from the appellate court to stay any further action by Jawi, including prosecution proceedings in the Syariah court against her, pending the judicial review in the High Court. The High Court subsequently allowed the judicial review and among its orders, ruled that the charge against Nik Raina should be dropped as it was procedurally wrong. The matter was then brought back to the Syariah court today.