The Federal Territory Islamic Department (Jawi) will know on Dec 30 whether their appeal over an order to withdraw a charge on Borders Midvalley store manager, Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz for distributing the book ‘Allah, Liberty and Love’ is successful.
 
The decision will be made by the appellate court on that day after it heard two days of submission on why the charge made at the Syariah High Court should not be dropped.
 
Nik Raina's lawyer, Rosli Dahlan confirmed this development to Malaysiakini today.
 
“I just received notification from the Court of Appeal registry. The Borders decision is on Dec 30, in Putrajaya,” he said.
 
Jawi's appeal over the matter was heard in August but judgment was reserved then.
 
Nik Raina was charged by Jawi at the KL Syariah Court in June 2012, for distributing the book authored by Canadian Irshad Manji.
 
She was picked up by the authorities on May 23, 2012.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/201256
 
The book, however, was banned by the authorities six days after the Jawi raid on the bookstore.
 
This led Nik Raina's lawyers to file a judicial review application at the civil High Court, to set aside the Syariah High Court charge.
 
Last year, High Court judge Justice Zaleha Yusof allowed Nik Raina's application and ruled that actions by Jawi – raid, seizure, and subsequent charge on Nik Raina – predated the banning of the book, which constitutes retrospective enforcement.
 
The judge ruled Jawi's action to be in violation of Article 7 of the Federal Constitution, which states that no citizen can be punished under a law before it is enacted.
 
Justice Zaleha further allowed an order by Nik Raina to quash the charge against her.
 
However, Jawi decided to appeal this verdict, resulting in Nik Raina's fate to be in limbo two years after she was charged.

The KL Syariah High Court last year, did not strike out the charge but allowed Jawi's application for a stay of proceedings, pending the appeal at the Court of Appeal.
 
Kassim Ahmad's decision next month
 
On another note, scholar Kassim Ahmad's application to contest the three Syariah court charges on him at KL High Court will be decided on Jan 6.
 
Initially, the decision was expected at the KL High Court yesterday.
 
However, the Attorney General’s Chambers put in a late written submission on Thursday, resulting in Justice Asmabi Mohamad to postpone delivering her decision.
 
The octogenerian was initially charged at the Lower Syariah Court with two charges of deriding Islam, before being charged again in the Putrajaya Syariah High Court.
 
Another charge was levelled on the octogenarian but not read out when he was brought again to the Putrajaya Syariah High Court on Mar 27.
 
Following this, Kassim, named the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom, the chief syariah prosecutor of Jawi, Jawi, and the Malaysian government, as respondents in his judicial review application, where he sought to quash the charges.
 
Rosli, who is also representing Kassim in this case, told this to Malaysiakini yesterday.