'Jurisdiction on apostasy matter lies with syariah courts'

The Court of Appeal in Kuching dismissed the appeal by three Sarawakians to leave Islam because the civil courts have no jurisdiction to hear on matters of apostasy as it lies with the syariah courts.

Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat who wrote the unanimous decision said the ruling by the judicial commissioner to dismiss the leave application was consistent with several cases decided by the Federal Court on similar issues.

The written judgment dated Nov 1 was recently made available to Malaysiakini.

She cited the cases of Dalip Kaur, Lina Joy, Soon Singh and Haji Raimi in support of her decision.

“The Federal Court reiterated that whether a person was a Muslim or not falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of the syariah courts,” Justice Tengku Maimun said in her 17-page written judgment.