Thursday, 17 Dec 2020 03:13 PM MYTEzra Zaid is pictured at the Petaling Shariah Subordinate Court in Shah Alam December 17, 2020. — Picture by Miera Zulyana
Petaling Shariah subordinate court judge Shukran Yusof today rejected the prosecution’s application for a DNAA on Ezra, but instead ordered that he be both discharged and acquitted from the Shariah charge under Section 16 of the Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment 1995. “Because if here, the court discharges without acquittal, it will become an academic issue, nothing can be done by the prosecution for investigations and so on, because this case is not valid starting from the arrest and the fourth respondent’s decision to prosecute were all quashed by the Court of Appeal and any appeal to the Federal Court is no longer allowed. ,” he said when agreeing with Ezra’s lawyer’s arguments on why he should be fully released from the Shariah charge.
As for the final court order sought by the Shariah prosecution, the judge rejected the application for what would have been effectively a gag order on Ezra or his agent to stop them from talking about the Shariah case in any way. Ezra’s lawyer Zulkifli Che Yong had in his written submissions however highlighted the need for press freedom in public interest cases to enable the public to know about their rights and limits in law, and that such a gag order should not be allowed.