PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal here has allowed an application by celebrity preacher Syed Shah Iqmal Syed Mohd Shaiful, also known as Da'i Syed, to stay his 10-year prison sentence and three strokes of the cane in a rape case.
In the unanimous decision, a three-judge panel chaired by Justice Azmi Ariffin said the court found special circumstances in the case that allowed for the appellant to be released on bail pending the disposal of his appeal.
"The appellant has never failed to attend court proceedings during the trial, therefore we do not see any flight risk at this stage.
"There is no evidence that the appellant had absconded before this. We have also considered that the appellant is a first time offender," he said on Friday (Feb 13).
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Justice Azmi then increased bail to RM40,000 in two sureties.
He ordered the appellant to report to the nearest police station each month.
Syed Shah Iqmal's passport would be retained by the High Court and Justice Azmi said the appellant could apply to retrieve it should he need to travel.
"Please make sure that the conditions I have mentioned are fully complied with or this bail will be revoked," Justice Azmi said.
Other judges on the bench were Justices Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz and Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid.
Just after the proceedings were adjourned, Syed Shah Iqmal, who was handcuffed and seated in the dock, went over to his teary-eyed wife, TV host Hana Ismail, and hugged her.
Earlier, his lawyer M. Athimulan submitted to the court that it has jurisdiction to exercise its discretion and grant a stay of execution of the sentence, imposed by the Shah Alam Sessions Court when it found the appellant guilty in 2024.
The lawyer said the defence has appealable issues to raise during the appeal proper and that if his client won, the prison sentence would have an irreversible effect if he were serving it then.
Syed Shah Iqmal has been in prison for 21 days at the Kajang Prison since the High Court upheld his conviction and sentence.
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"Special circumstances vary from case to case and there is no straightjacket formula.
"I humbly submit that public interest would not be served by immediately incarcerating the individual," Athimulan said.
Deputy public prosecutor Atiqah Abdul Karim objected to the application.
She said, however, that if the court granted a stay, the bail should be increased to RM50,000.
On Dec 10, 2020, Syed Shah Iqmal claimed trial at the Sessions Court to a charge of raping a 23-year-old woman at a condominium in I-City, Section 7 Shah Alam, at 1.35am on Sept 11, 2019.
The charge was framed under Section 376(1) of the Penal Code, which provides for a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and caning, if convicted.
On Aug 30, 2024, the Sessions Court sentenced him to 10 years’ jail and three strokes of the cane after finding him guilty of the offence.
The celebrity preacher, who found fame in a religious reality TV show, was ordered to begin serving the sentence immediately.
On Sept 20, 2024, he was released from prison after the Shah Alam High Court granted a stay of execution pending his appeal to the High Court.
On Jan 23, the High Court upheld his conviction and sentence, saying that the lower court did not err in its findings. The High Court also ordered the prison time to begin immediately.
Syed Shah Iqmal then filed an appeal against the decision to immediately enforce the sentencing.
Speaking to reporters later, his lawyer Mohamed Baharudeen Mohamed Ariff said the hearing dates for the appeal proper at the appellate court have yet to be fixed.
