DANCER Bilqis Hijjas, whose acquittal was reversed last month, said she had no intention of insulting Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, when she dropped yellow balloons during an event where they were the VIP guests.

Bilqis was charged with behaving in an insulting manner after releasing balloons from the fifth floor at the Pavilion shopping mall in Bukit Bintang at 3.15pm on August 31, 2015.

Her action was to highlight the principles of democracy, free media and justice – words printed on the balloons – she said today.

“I only wanted to remind the prime minister of the principles printed on the balloons, which I think are the main principles in the country.

“These are the principles that many people want in the country and I wanted to tell him we hold strongly to these principles,” she said at the Kuala Lumpur magistrates’ court.

The balloons fell behind an LCD screen at the second floor where the Kuala Lumpur Art’s Festival opening ceremony was being held in 2015.

Bilqis said she obtained the balloons from the Bersih 4 rally, which she attended a day before the event.

Deputy public prosecutor Nurakmal Farhan Aziz asked how she would she feel if the same incident happened at an event organised by her and the media coverage focused on the disturbance instead of the event itself.

Bilqis replied she would not know how she would feel – which prompted Nurakmal to ask the same question – before being stopped by the magistrate, who asked Nurakmal why he was forcing the witness to answer the same question.

Bilqis’ lawyer, Eric Paulsen, said her intention was not to cause a disturbance or breach of the peace and the final decision should be made by the magistrate based on Bilqis’ explanation.

“Factually, I think we are clear there was no breach of the peace because we have seen from the evidence, the video, no one saw the balloons and nobody screamed or ran away and the only person who saw it was the security personnel.

“She had said very clearly that her intention is not to cause any disturbance or breach of the peace. Her intention was to affirm the principles of democracy, free media and justice,” Paulsen told The Malaysian Insight.

On October 3, Bilqis was ordered to enter her defence after Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Indera Mohd Sofian Abd Razak reversed Bilqis’ acquittal and sent the case back to a lower court. 

He ruled that the magistrate had erred in acquitting Bilqis and allowed the government’s appeal against the acquittal.

Indera said “free media”, “democracy”, “justice” on the balloons were also used in materials during the Bersih 4 anti-government rally held on August 29 and August 30, 2015.

The next hearing will be on November 13 and 20 while a decision is expected on November 27. –November 6, 2017.