Student charged for Facebook 'petrol bomb' remark
"Ke nak aku baling bom petrol di sana plak? ... harga boleh runding..." (Do you want me to throw a petrol bomb there? ... the price is negotiable).
This is among the comments that landed 25-year-old Tasyrif Tajuddin in hot soup.
"Ke nak aku baling bom petrol di sana plak?...harga boleh runding..." (Do you want me to throw a petrol bomb there? ... the price is negotiable).
This is among the comments that landed 25-year-old Tasyrif Tajuddin in hot soup.
The film studies student with the government-owned Aswara National Academy of Arts and Heritage in Kuala Lumpur was charged at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court this afternoon for 'making threatening comments with the intent to cause harm'.
However, no plea was recorded from Tasyrif as the sitting Sessions Court Judge Aslam Zainuddin was away on official duty. The charge was read instead before Magistrate Koh Khuang Chin.
When hearing the charge, the magistrate said that Tasyrif’s case will be postponed for hearing before justice Aslam at the Sessions Court on Monday for his plea to be recorded.
Prosecution had offered bail to be set at RM10,000 with one surety. However, without the sitting judge present, the decision on whether or not to grant bail will also be made on Monday.
Tasyrif will be remanded until then.
It is believed that Tasyrif had made the comments on his friend’s status message, on the popular social networking site Facebook.
In one of the comments, he said that he was responsible for procuring the substance used in the homemade explosive with regards to the spate of attacks on churches.
He also claimed that he was at the scene but was not present when a petrol bomb was hurled at a particular church.
'Charged for comments, not arson'
Police say Tasyrif is the same person who was arrested earlier, who was released after police found his comment on the church attacks was a prank.
"We found out it was the same person but the reason why he was charged today has got nothing to do with the 'Allah' row or the church attacks," deputy national police chief Ismail Omar told AFP.
"He is the person who posted on Facebook that he was willing to attack the Batu Caves temple for money."
Tasyrif was charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act which carries a punishment of one year jail and/or RM50,000 fine if found guilty.
The student was unrepresented while deputy public prosecutor Dusuki Mokhtar led the prosecution.
Dusuki said Tasyrif is being charged only for the comments he made on Facebook and not for the act of arson itself.
The student is the first person to be prosecuted in relation to the attacks.
As of yesterday, 10 churches have been targeted in the wake of a high court ruling that a Catholic weekly Herald can use the word Allah in their publication's Malay pages.
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