Power with syariah court

‘Civil court has no power to hear such cases’

Federal Court rules that civil court has no power to hear apostasy cases in Sarawak.

KUCHING: The power to hear apostasy cases in Sarawak lies with the Syariah Court and not the civil court, the Federal Court has ruled.

In a unanimous decision, a five-man Bench led by Court of Appeal president Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin dismissed an appeal by four Sarawakians to have their applications to convert out of Islam heard in the civil court.

The appellants were Muslim-born Syarifah Nooraffyza Wan Hosen, who left Islam voluntarily to embrace Christianity, and Muslim converts Mohd Syafiq Abdullah @ Tiong Choo Ting, Jenny Peter @ Nur Muzdhalifah Abdullah and Salina Jau Abdullah, who reverted to Christianity after divorcing or after the death of their spouses.

They named the director of the Sarawak Islamic Department, Sarawak Islamic Council, director-general of the National Registration Department and state government as respondents.

Justice Zulkefli said the court’s decision was based on settled case law, as well as provisions in the Majlis Islam Sarawak Ordinance 2001.

“We find that the appeal has no merit. Although there is no specific provision in the Sarawak Syariah Court Ordinance 2001 on conversions to and out of Islam, Sections 68, 69 and 70 of the Majlis Islam Sarawak Ordinance can be deployed by the Syariah Court to hear apostasy cases,” he said when delivering the judgment here yesterday.

When approached after the judgment, the appellants’ lawyer Joshua Baru said: “The deadlock (over jurisdiction) is broken and we have a channel now. It is not what we had hoped for but there is a channel, so we will take what is given to us.”

Joshua said the next step for his clients was to go back to the Syariah Court to file their cases.

“Obviously we will not be able to assist them any further because we would have to be syariah lawyers, so we have to go back and think about how we will proceed after this,” he added.

He also hoped the Syariah Court would exercise its jurisdiction in the matter following the Federal Court’s decision.

In 2015, the appellants applied unsuccessfully to the High Court for a declaration that they were Christians, orders seeking letters of release from Islam and for the religion in their identity cards to be changed to Christianity.

The High Court refused leave to hear their cases on the grounds that the civil court had no jurisdiction in cases of apostasy.

Their appeals to the Court of Appeal were dismissed in 2016, after which they appealed to the Federal Court on the question of jurisdiction.