SEPANG — Two men were fined RM3,000 each by the Sessions Court after pleading guilty to posting obscene comments on Facebook against the baby girl of a UK-based Malaysian doctor three years ago.
Judge Ahmad Fuad Othman pronounced the sentence after Mohd Shahrulamin Abdullah, 41, and Mohd Rasul Abd Razak, 44, pleaded guilty, Bernama reports.
The two will be jailed a month if they failed to pay the fine.
Mohd Shahrulamin was charged with committing the offence at 10 pm, Dec 20, 2022, while Mohd Rasul was accused of doing the same at 4.30 pm, Dec 29, 2022.
A third accused, Mohd Nasir Kadir, 57, pleaded not guilty to a similar charge of posting an obscene Facebook comment. He was charged of posting the comment at 10.29 pm on Dec 15, 2022.
The court set May 23 for his case re-mention and allowed him bail of RM3,000.
All three were charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which is punishable under Section 233(3) of the same Act and carries a maximum fine of RM50,000 with an additional fine of RM1,000 a day if the offence continues or jail of up to no more than a year or both if found guilty.
The case was conducted by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) prosecuting officer Nur Nazhzilah Mohammad Hashim while the three accused were unrepresented.
In Dec 2022, Malaysian-born doctor Dr Amalina Che Bakri who is a surgeon in the UK, had posted on X about female circumcision which is illegal there.
Amalina, who has a following of over 802,000 on X and is known as a medical social media influencer, had posted an article about the procedure, known as “khitan” to Muslims, which drew comments from Malaysians here.
When she replied to a query from a follower that the procedure was banned in the UK, she received lewd comments in Bahasa Malaysia slang that were directed at her daughter, then only nine weeks-old.
Amalina said at the time that the commenters had crossed a line when they directed their lewd remarks at her baby girl and would mull legal action against them.
She said news portals had also written articles about her remarks, which drew more vile comments against her on social media.
UK calls the procedure female genital mutilation, as does the World Health Organisation which has called for a ban on the practice.
The practice is not outlawed here, where it is seen as a cultural obligation rather than a harmful procedure. – April 28, 2025