Comedy club case: Woman pleads not guilty to insulting Islam

KUALA LUMPUR: The woman seen in footage of a controversial stand-up comedy act has been charged at the Sessions Court here on Wednesday (July 13).

The accused, Siti Nuramira Abdullah, 26, has pleaded not guilty.

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According to the charge sheet, Nuramira was accused of insulting Islam by admitting she is Muslim and memorised 15 juz of the Quran before discarding her tudung and baju kurung at the Crackhouse Comedy Club restaurant in Taman Tun Dr Ismail on June 4.

Nuramira was charged under Section 298A of the Penal Code with causing disharmony, disunity, or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion.

She is facing maximum five years imprisonment, upon conviction.

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Clad in a yellow blouse and black pants, Nuramira earlier arrived around 9am before being brought to the courtroom in handcuffs.

The court set RM20,000 bail with one surety and the accused need to surrender her passport until the disposal of the case.

The court fixed Aug 18 for mention.

Siti's boyfriend, Alexander Navin Vijayachandran, was also seen arriving at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court to be charged under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for misusing network facilities.

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Last weekend, a 54-second video circulated on social media showing a woman claiming to have memorised 15 juz of the Quran before discarding her tudung and baju kurung, leaving her in low-cut top and short skirt.

The video was of a performance during an open-mic night at the Crackhouse Comedy Club in TTDI.

The woman involved in the controversial video was arrested on July 9 and was initially remanded at the Brickfields police headquarters beginning Saturday (July 9) for three days until July 12.

On Sunday (July 10) DBKL announced the temporary suspension of the comedy club pending investigations of licenses of the premises.

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On Monday (July 11), the police also announced that the boyfriend of the woman had been arrested by the Classified Criminal Investigation Unit of Bukit Aman.

The Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) conducted their own preliminary investigation into the viral video of the woman’s routine, which allegedly insulted Islam.

Jawi director Datuk Mohd Ajib Ismail said the preliminary investigation was carried out by its enforcement division.

Under the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997, those found guilty of insulting or causing contempt against Islam can be fined up to RM3,000 or imprisoned for up to two years, or both.