The Star Online （http://thestar.com.my）
Church pastor gets discharge, 4 January 2008
by Chan Li Leen
IPOH: A church pastor, charged with threatening a housewife with death if she did not withdraw a rape report against him, was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.
Magistrate Noor Aini Yusof granted the order here Friday to free pastor Menon Manasa A.J. George. Counsel S. Selvam had asked the court to free Menon Manasa as the complainant in the case, S. Kogilavani, remained untraceable. “During the last hearing, the prosecution had asked for a postponement based on the same reason that the complainant could not be traced,” Selvam said.
The prosecution also agreed that the police had been unable to trace the complainant. Assuring the court that his client was a pastor and a reputable man, Selvam said that Menon Manasa could easily be located if the police intended to pursue the matter in future.
Menon Manasa, 43, a pastor of a church in First Garden here, is accused of threatening Kogilavani and her husband with death if the 26-year-old housewife failed to withdraw a police report alleging he had raped her. He was said to have threatened the couple at No 127, Persiaran Sungai Pari in Buntong here on March 8, 2005, at about 5pm.
Malaysiakini.com （http://www.malaysiakini.com）
Court allows Christian husband to block Muslim funeral, 4 January 2008
The Kuala Lumpur High Court today granted an order to a non-Muslim husband to bar Islamic authorities from giving his dead wife a Muslim funeral.
The tug-of-war over the body of Wong Sau Lan, who died Dec 30, would mean that she will remain unburied until the court determines whether she converted to Islam before her death.
Wong's Christian husband, Ngiam Tee Kong, sought the court order after the Federal Territory Islamic Council claimed that Wong had converted to Islam on Dec 24. The religious body sought to bury her according to Muslim rites. Wong’s body would now remain in the Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) mortuary until the court starts hearing the case on her alleged conversion on Jan 18.
Ngiam’s lawyer Karpal Singh was quoted in the media today as saying that it was unclear as to how long the case might take to resolve.
Ngiam, a 53-year-old manager of an entertainment outlet, is claiming that his wife, who was 53, remained a Christian at her death and that any conversion was legally invalid.
In his affidavit, Ngiam said when he went to HUKM to claim his wife's body, he was informed that it would only be released to him if he confirmed that she was a Muslim at the time of her death. He was also told that the body would be released to him only for having Christian rites to be performed, after which it was to be returned to the hospital for it to be buried according to Muslim rites.
Ngiam claimed that on Dec 31, a day after Wong died, he received a declaration of conversion dated the same day signed by the Federal Territory Religious Department director, stating that Wong converted to a Muslim on Dec 24 at a flat in Jalan Siakap, Cheras.
Ngiam said the letter given to him did not state his wife's Muslim name. He said she was a practising Christian at the time of her death.
He said the letter of conversion was not in compliance with the provisions of Section 90(1) of the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act, 1993, as it was not given to Wong before her death.
Ngiam is seeking, among others, declarations that:
- Wong was a Christian at the time of her death;
- she did not fully embrace Islam before she died;
- she was not a Muslim at the time of her death.
He also wants the court to issue an order that he had the right to his wife's body and for the HUKM hospital director to release it to him immediately. This case is the latest in a string of similar cases which have been referred to the civil courts over disputes involving the burial of people whom Muslim authorities claimed had converted to Islam.
A national debate erupted when M Moorthy was buried as a Muslim in December 2005, ignoring objections from his Hindu wife, after an Islamic court ruled he had converted from Hinduism before his death. Ethnic Malay Muslims make up about 60 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people, while the rest are predominantly Buddhists, Hindus or Christians from ethnic Chinese and Indian communities.
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