Activist pleads guilty to insulting Christianity

A woman activist pleaded guilty at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court today to charges of posting insulting comments on Christianity on her Facebook page last year.

Wan Asshima Kamaruddin, 38, an activist from NGO Pondok Hijrah Muslimah Malaysia, changed her plea to guilty at the trial of her case today.

Judge M M Edwin Paramjothy set June 15 to hear the facts of the case and for sentencing.

Wan Asshima was accused of making and initiating the transmission of offensive communications with the intention of offending others, through a Facebook account in the name of “Puteri Mujahidah Wan Asshima Kamaruddin” at 9.23am on March 11, 2021.

The post was then read at the Cyber and Multimedia Crime Investigation Division Office, Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department, Wangsa Maju, at 6.24pm, on March 13, 2021.

Wan Asshima was charged under Section 233 (1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, punishable under Section 233 (3) of the same act, which provides for a maximum fine of RM50,000, imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, with a further fine of RM1,000 for every day that the offence is repeated after conviction.

Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Najihah Farhana Che Awang pressed for an appropriate punishment to serve as a lesson to the accused and the public, considering that there were 61 police reports lodged nationwide regarding Wan Asshima’s post.

“The most complaints came from Sabah, Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. I also ask the court to consider this case, which entered the trial stage with three prosecution witnesses being called to testify, before the accused changed her plea to guilty,” she said.

Lawyer Dorina Abdullah, representing Wan Asshima, pleaded for leniency on the grounds that her client was the sole breadwinner of the family and had not intended to harm the public through her post.

“My client is also facing a divorce case. I seek the court’s sympathy in meting out the sentence for this case,” said Dorina.