Ezra Zaid speaks to reporters at the Petaling Shariah Subordinate Court in Shah Alam December 17, 2020. — Picture by Miera Zulyana KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 ― The High Court today asked both Mohd Ezra Mohd Zaid and the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) to attempt to settle on the amount of compensation to be paid to him, over Jais’ past wrongful Shariah prosecution in relation to a book in Bahasa Malaysia published by his company. Today was initially scheduled for the High Court’s hearing of assessment of damages, or to determine the amount of compensation that Jais should pay to Ezra. When contacted, Ezra’s lawyer Fahri Azzat said the hearing before High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md. Shahid did not proceed today, due to technical and procedural issues. Typically, a trial is done through the calling of witnesses, but the hearing in this case was previously directed to proceed based on affidavits. Fahri explained that the hearing today however could not go on just based on affidavits that had been filed, as Jais was disputing the facts asserted by Ezra. Fahri said the judge then gave two months for both parties to pursue efforts to settle the […]
