The Taiping Sessions Court today reduced bail to RM5,000 from the RM30,000 imposed by the Taiping Magistrate Court last week for three of the four men charged with arson attacks on two churches and a school in Taiping last month.

The three are Andidi Rossidi, 21, Abdul Fattah Shaharuddin, 21, and Muhamad Wahab,19. The judge, Meor Sulaiman Ahmad Termizi, also fixed April 9 for the mention of the case.

The fourth accused, Mohamad Azreen Rosli,18, is in the Sungai Petani juvenile detention camp and his case will come up for mention at the Juvenile Court here on March 24.

The four are charged under Section 436 of the Penal Code that deals with causing mischief with fire or explosives and carries a maximum 20- year jail term and /or a fine upon conviction.

All Saints Church

Fattah and Muhamad were both charged with intent to cause arson between 12.01am and 3.30am on Jan 10, on the All Saints Church in Jalan Taming Sari.

Azreen was ctaiping arson attack all saint church frontharged with attempting to cause arson on the Taiping Catholic Church, formerly known as St Louis Church, in Jalan Convent on the same date and time.

Andidi faces a similar charge on the same date and time on the guardhouse of SMK Convent Taiping, located next to the Taiping Catholic Church.

All four accused are represented by Naran Singh who pleaded that the RM30,000 set as bail by Magistrate Sharifah Izura Syed Mashor for each of them was excessive.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Hamdan Hamzah argued that the amount should not be reduced as the office committed was serious and of public concern and there was a chance that the three accused may jump bail if the amount was reduced.

However Naran argued: "Under Section 389 of the Criminal Procedure Code the bail amount should be sufficient to secure the attendance of the person arrested but shall not be excessive and a judge can reduce the bail amount."

Odd-job labourers

"Furthermore the parents of the four accused are odd-job labourers and cannot afford the exorbitant amount of RM30,000 each and the court should not be influenced by the reports in the print media."

Naran then ataiping arson attack all saints churchpplied for a RM3,000 bond for each of the three accused but Meor set the bail at RM5,000 for each.

The remaining three suspects out of the seven suspects arrested on Jan 22, have turned prosecution witnesses and have been freed.

The attacks on the three premises were prompted by the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling last December, allowing Catholic weekly Herald to use the word `Allah' in its Bahasa Malaysia version.
In all, 12 churches and a gurdwara were attacked nationwide.