A warrant for Nur Sajat’s arrest was issued today (23rd February) by the Syariah High Court. The reason for the warrant? Failing to attend today’s proceedings.
Cosmetics entrepreneur, Nur Sajat (full name Muhammad Sajjad Kamaruz Zaman) was supposed to be in court for her case mention as decided by the court last time. However, she failed to show up.
On 6th January, Nur Sajat was charged with “bringing contempt to the religion of Islam”. Her offence was cross-dressing at a religious event which was held at her beauty centre in Section 16, Shah Alam, on 23rd February 2018. She was charged under Section 10 (a) of the Syariah Crimes (Selangor) Enactment 1995.
If convicted, she can be fined a maximum of RM5,000 or imprisoned for at least 3 years, or both.
Nur Sajat pleaded not guilty to the charge and was released on bail of RM3,000. The court then fixed 23rd February for her case mention.
A source stated, “She (Nur Sajat) did not attend the court hearing today and the judge issued an arrest warrant.” According to Harian Metro, the warrant was issued by Syarie Judge Mohammad Khalid Shaee @ Shaii. Syarie lawyer Zuri Zabuddin Budiman who is representing Nur Sajat said, “I waited but she did not come.”
“The court has postponed the mention of the case to 1st June,” Zuri announced. He affirmed that Nur Sajat will be required to be present in court on the new date. “We will probably do a mitigation but have yet to discuss it,” he added.
Nur Sajat was also represented by lawyers Ahmad Nazib Johari, Noor Azlina Che Hassan and Amirah Zainal.
Update (Thursday, 25th February):
Sajat has finally came forward to shed some light on the reason behind her abrupt absence in the court. According to her, she didn’t intend to avoid appearing in court, but had to do so due to “health complication”.
The queer figure explained to Utusan, “I wasn’t feeling well. My face and limbs suddenly became swollen due to food allergies. I also have the doctor’s confirmation letter in case you guys don’t believe me.”
Apart from that, Sajat also questioned on why the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) has yet to send any full report on the charges made against her. In this case, she asserted that the incident happened back on 23rd February 2018.
Because of that, the “Makhluk Penggoda” songstress admitted that she is still traumatised by what happened when she was called to testify at the JAIS office last month. Sajat further added that she felt like she’s being despised for not being given the rights as a citizen of this country.
“If I want to avoid everything and just run away, I guess it is better for me to immediately move abroad instead. Why would I gave my cooperation all this time? To be honest, I’m not scared. But still, I am feel sad and discouraged for receiving this kind of treatment,” Sajat was quoted as saying.
