HUMAN Rights Watch has chided Malaysia’s outrageous and unacceptable prosecution of the director and producer of the banned movie “Mentega Terbang”.

Its deputy director for Asia, Phil Robertson, said the government has failed to protect freedom of expression.

“Malaysia’s prosecution of film director Khairi Anwar and producer Tan Meng Kheng under a vague and arbitrary statute for … ‘offending religious beliefs’ shows very clearly how Anwar and his government have fundamentally failed to protect freedom of expression, and are pursuing criminal cases (based on) political motivations,” he said in a statement.

Earlier, Khairi was charged at the Kuala Lumpur magistrate’s court with intentionally offending others’ religious beliefs.

He claimed trial when the charge was read to him before magistrate Noorelynna Hanim Abd Halim.

The offence under section 298 of the penal code carries punishment of a maximum of one year in prison, a fine, or both.

The director was allowed bail of RM6,000 with one surety.

Robertson said this crude political pandering at the expense of human rights is precisely the sort of thing Anwar accused previous governments of doing when he was part of the opposition.

“Now he’s hypocritically changed his tune after assuming power, and using the same censorship and persecution.

“The government should reverse course, uphold human rights principles, immediately direct prosecutors to drop these ludicrous, rights-abusing charges, and lift the ban on the film ‘Mentega Terbang’.” – January 17, 2024.