“Darah!  Kami mahukan darahnya.  Bawak dia pulang supaya kita boleh ambil darah si Murtad itu.. Orang Murtad darahnya halal!  Kami mahu darahnya!!!”…..

Ini bukan satu babak di dalam filem box-office yang menjadi kegilaan jutaan remaja perempuan di seluruh dunia, ia juga bukan juga sebaris skrip yang dialih bahasa dari “The Twillight Saga“, akan tetapi ini adalah realiti, satu mimpi buruk bagi remaja Saudi berusia 23 tahun, Hamza Kashgari (gambar kiri).  Satu mimpi yang bakal menjadi kenyataan tidak lama lagi.

Pada 5 Februari 2012, hari ulangtahun keputeraan Nabi Muhammad (S.A.W), Hamza telah menerbitkan puisi sepanjang tiga rangkap di laman Twitter beliau.  Bait-bait puisinya menerangkan bagaimana Rasulullah menjadi sumber inspirasinya namun beliau menganggap baginda seperti kawannya.  Puisinya membawa satu maksud yang mendalam dan bukan bertujuan untuk menghina Rasulullah.  Malangnya, ramai di kalangan Muslim telah tersalah tafsir atau sengaja menyalahtafsirkan maksud tersirat puisi Hamza, beliau dituduh menghina Muhamad dan Islam, sekaligus dikatakan telah murtad dan tergelincir akidahnya.

Terkejut dengan reaksi masyarakat Saudi, Hamza memadamkan puisinya dan dengan seikhlas hati memohon maaf di laman Twitternya dan telah mengucap shahadah untuk memastikan akidahnya tidak tergelincir akibat puisi tersebut.  Namun kemaafan yang dipinta tidak diendahkan.

Kerana takut akan keselamatannya, Hamza melarikan diri dari Saudi dan telah datang ke Malaysia dengan harapan agar kita dapat membantunya.  Namun hampa, kerana seperti di Saudi, “Vampire” juga wujud di Malaysia, tapi malangnya bukan “Vampire” sekacak dan sebaik seperti Edward Cullen yang menjadi igauan para remaja perempuan, tetapi “Vampire” sejahat dan serakus kumpulan “The Newborn Army” yang sentiasa dahagakan darah.  Mereka enggan memaafkannya dan merasakan kematian Hamza adalah wajar dan tepat.

Pada 12 Februari 2012, Hamza telah diusir pulang oleh Kerajaan Malaysia, bekas Kerajaan Islam Hadhari.  Dituduh pengganas oleh Menteri Dalam Negeri Malaysia (“The Volturi“) Hamza diterbangkan ke Saudi secara rahsia, dan beliau bakal berdepan hukuman bunuh.  Walaupun perintah telah dikeluarkan oleh Mahkamah Tinggi Kuala Lumpur untuk menghalang deportasi Hamza, Hishamuddin Hussein Onn (gambar kanan) dengan angkuh menafikan kewujudan perintah itu.  Tanpa rasa bersalah, Kerajaan 1Malaysia di bawah pimpinan Najib, telah berbangga dengan keputusan menghantar Hamza ke medan untuk dibunuh.

Di Malaysia ramai orang Islam bertukar menjadi “Vampire” ala “Newborn Army“, tatkala terbaca headlineakhbar tempatan yang tidak beretika dan “misleading” (seperti biasa,) “Wartawan Arab menghina Nabi”.  Golongan Muslim Vampire di Malaysia, menjerit mahukan Hamza dihantar pulang dan dibunuh kerana puisinya tanpa mengetahui isi kandungan puisi itu sendiri, apatah lagi untuk mengetahui cerita di sebalik perintah penangkapan Hamza.

Hanya mereka yang ingin mencari kebenaran mengetahui bahawa penangkapan Hamza adalah sesuatu yang bermotifkan politik dan bukanlah agama.  Pergerakan Hamza dan rakan-rakanya telah lama dipantau oleh kerajaan Saudi.  Puisinya dijadikan alasan untuk menangkap dan menghukumnya kerana penglibatannya dalam pergerakan kebangkitan kaum muda di Saudi.  Hanya segelintir sahaja yang tahu bahawa Hamza telah menerbitkan puisi yang membawa maksud yang sama setahun yang lalu, tiada sebarang reaksi negatif diterima dan tiada tindakan yang diambil.

Tanpa mengetahui atau mencari kebenaran, masyarakat Islam khususnya di Saudi dan di Malaysia telah menjatuhkan hukuman tanpa soal selidik ke atas Hamza.  Marah, benci dan ingin melihat Hamza diseksa sehingga mati, inginkan darahnya.  Hamza dilabel sebagai penjenayah.  Sedih sekali!  Penganut dan pengamal agama yang cintakan keamanan menjadi golongan yang paling ganas.  Islam bermaksud “peace or purity” tetapi umat Islam jauh dari sifat tersebut.  Mereka seolah-olah lupa wujudnya prinsip-prinsip sistem keadilan Islam dalam menghukum seseorang manusia.

Masyarakat Islam telah lupa ajaran Islam sebenarnya.  Agama Islam dijadikan agama hukuman, segala kesalahan akan dihukumi dengan seberat-berat hukuman, tiada ruang untuk kemaafan.  Islam dijadikan alat untuk menindas kaum yang lemah oleh mereka yang berkepentingan.  Pemimpin-pemimpin agama obses mencari kesalahan dan dosa orang lain.  Agama Islam dicemari umat Islam sendiri yang terlalu taksub dengan agama dan dosa dan di atas alasan ingin menjaga kesucian agama penindasan berleluasa.

Kita lupa bahawa Allah bersifat penyayang dan pemaaf.  Jika benarlah Hamza telah menghina Nabi adakah mustahil dan salah untuk kita memaafkannya?  Nabi telah memaafkan perbuatan penduduk Kota Taif yang bukan sahaja menghina Baginda malahan telah melemparinya dengan najis.  Setiap manusia selagi belum berpisah roh dan jasadnya Tuhan pasti akan menerima taubatnya.  Jadi siapa kita untuk tidak mengendahkan taubat Hamza?  Boleh jadi para Sheikh di Saudi merasakan mereka lebih hebat dari Tuhan?  Di dalam Surah An-Nur ayat 21, Yang Maha Pengampun dan Penyantun mengingatkan kita:

“Dan hendaklah mereka memaafkan dan berlapang dada. Apakah kamu tidak ingin bahawa Allah mengampunimu?“.

Terniang-niang sebaris lirik dari lagu “Maafkan Kami” dari filem Pendekar Bujang Lapok yang berbunyi, “Sedangkan Nabi ampunkan Umat!”.  Jadi adakah masyarakat Islam masih mahukan darah Hamza?  Ya atau tidak jawapannya, ia tidak membawa apa-apa perbezaan sekarang kerana Hamza sudah pun dihantar pulang untuk berdepan hukuman bunuh.  Makanya vampire “the newborn Army” di Malaysia boleh bersorak riang, darah Hamza boleh dinikmati.  Umat akhir zaman adalah umat Vampire!

*Farhana Abdul Halim ialah peguam dari Lawyers For Liberty.

Lawyers representing Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari have said there are no immigration records of his deportation from Malaysia, insinuating that the 23-year-old had been sent back to his native country surreptitiously and in violation of international laws concerning “non-refoulement”.

According to Kashgari’s lawyer, Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, neither Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah (Subang) airport nor Kuala Lumpur International airport (KLIA), which both serve Malaysia‘s capital, had any immigration records of Kashgari’s deportation. Without such records, the Malaysian government may have acted in contempt of court, Fadiah said.

Kashgari, a newspaper columnist, was detained at KLIA by Malaysian authorities on 9 February while in transit to New Zealand. He had fledSaudi Arabia two days earlier after messages he posted on Twitter concerning the prophet Muhammad created a furore and caused the Saudi Arabian authorities to issue a warrant for his arrest.

Although Kashgari soon deleted the tweets after posting them, Saudi religious clerics labelled him an apostate and called for his execution. Under Saudi law, apostasy – the renunciation of one’s religion – is punishable by death.

Kashgari’s case attracted considerable interest from international human rights groups, who voiced fears that he would face the death penalty if charged with blasphemy when returned to Saudi Arabia.

Fadiah and other members of Kashgari’s legal team filed a court injunction to stop his deportation from Malaysia, which they received on Sunday. They claim that they were not advised that their client had in fact been deported that day. The Malaysian home minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, had said that authorities did not receive the court order.

Fadiah called Kashgari’s treatment was “a case of public interest” and said: “If he was deported after the injunction was given, then it can amount to a contempt of court, and we’re looking at filing a case against the [Malaysian] government if that is so,” she was quoted as saying in Free Malaysia Today, a local news portal.

Fadiah’s comments come one day after Kashgari filed a habeas corpus writ through Lawyers for Liberty, an NGO in which Fadiah is a member. The group declared as respondents the inspector-general of police, the immigration director general, the home minister and the Malaysian government. The high court of Malaysia will hear an objection to the writ next week, Malaysian news agency Bernama reported on Tuesday.

Lawyers for Liberty has claimed that Malaysia breached international law by refusing Kashgari asylum, effectively “condemn[ing] him to torture and near certain death” in Saudi Arabia.

Fadiah told Free Malaysia Today that discrepancies in Malaysia’s account of Kashgari’s arrest and deportation could prove that the government’s actions against him were unlawful.

“On 10 February, the officer representing the police, Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, told news agency AFP that Kashgari was arrested pursuant to a request by Interpol, but on 13 February, Home Minister Hishammuddin said that there was no request by Interpol for deportation,” she said.

Fadiah also disputed claims by Hishammuddin that Kashgari was deported according to the “long-standing arrangement” between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, as there were no such treaties between the two countries.

“[Kashgari] came here to seek asylum, so according to international laws and human rights conventions, a country has the obligation to provide [and] to protect an individual who is fleeing his own country for fear of prosecution,” Fadiah said. “Malaysia is bound by customary international law: this is based on the principle of non-refoulement.”

She added that his counsel may file a case with the United Nations human rights body against Malaysia.

Hishammuddin on Monday defended Malaysia’s decision to deport the Saudi journalist and said the country should not “be seen as a safe country for terrorists [or] those who are wanted by their countries of origin … [or] as a transit country”. He said the deportation followed a request from the Saudi government and that allegations that Kashgari could be tortured and killed if sent back home were “ridiculous” because Saudi Arabia was a respectable country.

Kashgari’s deportation provoked debate worldwide, not least in Malaysia, which has long considered itself a “moderately Muslim” nation. Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian advocacy group, on Tuesday condemned Kashgari’s deportation and questioned Malaysia’s commitment providing a safe haven for asylum seekers.

“Do we not have any autonomy in deciding our own policies, or do we … adhere to the whims of countries we perceive as more powerful?” the group asked in a statement.

“Sadly, despite … attempt[s] to promote Malaysia as a moderate Muslim country, the Malaysian government has failed to match its rhetoric with its actions.”

Kate Hodal, The Guardian, 14 February 2012

KUALA LUMPUR: Lawyers representing Saudi Arabian journalist Hamza Kashgari Mohamad Najeeb said today that there were no immigration records showing that the 23-year-old was deported prior to a court injunction preventing the government from doing so.

“We checked at the Subang airport immigration at between 2.15pm to 2.30pm and there were no immigration records of his deportation.

“At 3.15pm, we checked again at KLIA, there were no records,” lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri told reporters after proceedings in chambers with High Court judge Rohana Yusof who heard Kashgari’s habeas corpus application.

Fadiah said the injunction was granted on Sunday at 1.45pm. Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday that the authorities did not receive the court order.

The court today fixed next Wednesday (Feb 22) for hearing the application, in which the respondents (the government and police) are expected to make preliminary objections against the habeas corpus application.

According to Fadiah, lawyers for the respondents had today objected to the hearing on the grounds that it would be academic as Kashgari has already been deported.

“But we’re saying its not academic because it is a case of public interest. And if he was deported after the injunction was given, then it can amount to a contempt of court, and we’re looking at filing a case against the government if that is so,” said Fadiah.

The habeas corpus application was filed on Monday by lawyer K Ragunath and a team from Lawyers for Liberty, an NGO which Fadiah is a member of.

The NGO is questioning the legality of Kashgari’s arrest and deportation from Malaysia, and is seeking the court to declare those actions as unlawful.

The respondents are the Inspector-General of Police, Malaysian Immigration Director-General, Home Minister and the Malaysian government.

Senior Federal Council Amir Nasruddin and Federal Counsel Mohd Zain Ibrahim are acting for all four respondents.

New affidavit

Fadiah said they had filed a new affidavit to claim that they have been misled throughout his arrest and deportation by the respondents, in particular the Inspector-General of Police and the Home Minister.

“On Feb 10, the officer representing the police Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf told news agency AFP that Kashgari was arrested pursuant to a request by Interpol but on Feb 13, the Home Minister Hishammuddin said that there was no request by Interpol for deportation,” she said.

Fadiah also said authorities said Kashgari was arrested on Feb 9 on his arrival in Malaysia but checks showed Kashgari actually arrived two days earlier on Feb 7.

Fadiah also said that on Feb 12, Hishammuddin said that Kashgari was being deported according to the ‘long-standing arrangement’ with Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, but she said that there was no treaty or official documentation at all between the two countries.

“We checked, there are no treaties between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

“He came here to seek asylum, so according to international laws and human rights conventions, a country has the obligation to provide (and) to protect an individual who is fleeing his own country for fear of prosecution.

“Malaysia is bound by customary international law, this is based on the principle of non-refoulment,” said Fadiah, who said the lawyers may be looking at filing a case with the United Nations human rights body against the government.

Hamza is alleged to have insulted Islam and Prophet Muhammad through twitter and is said to be facing a trial and possible execution in his home country for his ‘blasphemous’ comments.

Kashgari had fled his country after his tweets triggered outrage in the hardline Islamic state. However, on the way to New Zealand, where he intended to seek asylum, he was reportedly detained in KLIA airport in Malaysia on Feb 9.

Many called for his head after he supposedly insulted the Prophet Muhammad; which is considered blasphemous in Islam and is also a crime punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islamic syariah law.

It is not a capital crime in Malaysia.

‘I will not pray to you”

Kashgari had supposedly tweeted, among others: “I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don’t understand about you. I will not pray for you.”

He was deported from Malaysia on Sunday afternoon, reportedly just hours before his lawyers here managed to obtain a court order to stop him from being send back to Saudi Arabia.

That fact is now, however, being questioned.

Kashgari, according to reports, will now probably face charges of blasphemy and, human rights organisations fear, execution in his home country, where the religious authority declared him an apostate.

Teoh El Sen | February 14, 2012

Free Malaysia Today

Malaysia’s government on Monday defended its decision to deport a young Saudi journalist who may face persecution at home for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter.

International rights groups have slammed the deportation but Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia was not a safe haven for fugitives.

Jiddah-based newspaper columnist Hamza Kashgari, 23, was detained Thursday at the Malaysian airport while in transit to New Zealand. He was deported Sunday despite fears from rights groups that he may face the death penalty if charged with blasphemy over remarks he tweeted that many considered offensive.

“I will not allow Malaysia to be seen as a safe country for terrorists and those who are wanted by their countries of origin, and also be seen as a transit county,” Hishammuddin said.

He said the deportation followed a request from the Saudi government. Allegations that Kashgari could be tortured and killed if he was sent back home are “ridiculous” because Saudi Arabia is a respectable country, he said.

Malaysian authorities also didn’t receive any court order to halt the deportation, he added.

Lawyers representing Kashgari’s family obtained a court order Sunday to try to keep him in Malaysia but he had been put on a plane back home by the time the order was issued.

Human Rights Watch slammed Malaysia’s failure to respect human rights. It said Kashgari was kept incommunicado and denied access to lawyers and the U.N. refugee agency. Police also told lawyers that Kashgari was still being held after he already had been forced on a plane, it said.

“By its actions, the ministry of home affairs once again showed that it believes rule of law is whatever it says and that it is more than willing to be totally opaque in its operations to maintain its flexibility to do what it wants when it wants,” said Phil Robertson, its Asia deputy director.

“If he (Kashgari) faces execution back in Saudi Arabia, the Malaysian government will have blood on its hands,” he said.

Local rights group Lawyers for Liberty said Kashgari arrived in Malaysia on Feb. 7 from Jordan and was leaving the country two days later to New Zealand to seek asylum when he was detained.

“The cold hard truth is that Malaysia has bent over backwards to please Saudi Arabia, breached international law by not allowing (Kashgari) to seek asylum and instead handed him on a silver platter to his persecutors,” it said.

Amnesty International has called Kashgari a “prisoner of conscience.”

In Brussels, the European Union said it was “deeply disappointed” by Malaysia’s decision to deport Kashgari.

Spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said it appeared that he had not been granted access to a lawyer or the right of appeal “in accordance with international standards.”

___

EILEEN NG

February 14, 2012 – 3:21AM

Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

A day after Malaysia deported a 23-year old Saudi Arabian journalist to face charges of insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter, his Malaysia-based lawyers are hoping to keep the case alive in Malaysia’s courts, even though it’s unlikely to affect the journalist’s fate in his home country.

Lawyers for Hamza Kashgari on Monday filed an application with Malaysia’s High Court asking judges to declare the columnist’s arrest and detention by local authorities unlawful. On Tuesday, the judges adjourned the hearing until Feb. 22 to allow the government and the police to file affidavits in reply. The case named as respondents Malaysia’s Minister of Home Affairs, the Inspector General of Police, and other government authorities.

The move won’t bring back Mr. Kashgari, who was handed over to Saudi authorities on Sunday after conservative clerics there led a public campaign on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube demanding he be executed for his tweets. In the tweets, the Jeddah-based writer examined his complex feelings about the founder of Islam.

But Mr. Kashgari’s lawyers say there is a principle involved in defending him even after his deportation, since they believe the Saudi writer was handed over unlawfully. Keeping the case in the courts could also help keep the writer’s situation in the public eye a bit longer, adding to international pressure on Saudi Arabia to handle Mr. Kashgari with leniency.

Saudi officials have made limited comments about the case, which drew global attention after human rights organizations warned Mr. Kashgari could be killed if returned to Saudi Arabia. A senior Saudi government official said on Sunday that Mr. Kashgari will likely face charges of apostasy, or renunciation of Islam; many Saudi clerics believe apostasy must always be punished by death, even in cases where the alleged culprit recants and retracts, as Mr. Kashgari did, by Twitter.

The Saudi information minister said on his Twitter page that Mr. Kashgari “attacks our prophet in a manner that does not fit a Muslim,” and that legal measures will be taken to guarantee that he will banned from writing for any Saudi publication.

Mr. Kashgari’s lawyers – including some from the human rights group Lawyers for Liberty – contend it was inappropriate to send the columnist back home because they had obtained a last-minute injunction Sunday to stop his forced return. They are alleging that the Home Minister and police knew about the injunction and deported him anyway – a charge the Home Minister and police deny. In a press statement, Lawyers for Liberty said Malaysia’s Home Minister and the Royal Malaysia Police had “obliterated whatever rule of law and due process are left in Malaysia.”

The statement went on to say that Malaysian authorities had resisted all attempts by Mr. Kashgari’s lawyers to meet him, detained him in a secret location, and deported him in unfair haste. It said news of the injunction was reported widely on Twitter and online media, as well as sent to the Home Minister and the Inspector General of Police’s offices by fax. A spokesman for Malaysia’s federal police said the Inspector General of Police’s office did not receive any faxed injunction.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein likewise said his office had not seen any court orders that would have prevented the deportation. “If there was a court order, we would abide by it, but there wasn’t,” Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters Monday. He also defended the government’s decision to deport the man. “I will not allow Malaysia to be seen as a safe country for terrorists and those who are wanted by their countries of origin, and also be seen as a transit county,” he said.

As for fears that Mr. Kashgari could be killed upon his return to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Hishammuddin said “allegations that he would be executed, abused, do not make sense. The country being accused is a dignified country. These are serious allegations against Saudi Arabia.” Mr. Kashgari fled to Malaysia last week after public calls for his execution intensified. A person familiar with the writer’s movements said he arrived safely in Malaysia but was advised by friends that it wouldn’t be wise to remain in the country. Arrangements were then made to fly him to New Zealand, but he was detained by Malaysian authorities Thursday when he returned to the airport.

blogs.wsj.com

Feb 14, 2012

Press Statement

Lawyers for Liberty is simply astonished and outraged at Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein and PDRM’s continuing attempt to spin further lies and deceit over the illegal and unconstitutional detention and deportation of Hamza Kashgari by now alleging or insinuating that he is a “criminal” or “terrorist” wanted by his home country.

The truth is Hamza had sent a few tweets on the Prophet Muhammad which he has since deleted and apologized. It must be noted a similar poem on the prophet was published on his blog a year ago but did not receive any negative reaction from anybody. More importantly, he belongs to a group of emerging young pro-democracy activists which among others had supported the Arab Spring. Just days before he fled Saudi Arabia, the police stopped him and his group of young activists from organizing a series of forums to show solidarity with the Syrian uprising. He has also been said to have been monitored by the Saudi Intelligence more than 8 months ago.

The Home Minister and PDRM have further backtracked on Interpol’s involvement after the agency had denied requesting Hamza’s arrest. The initial claim of Interpol’s involvement was a blatant attempt to varnish the arrest with a veneer of international legitimacy since the arrest could not be justified under international law as Hamza was clearly a political refugee.

It should be noted that when Hamza was arrested on 9 February at KLIA, he was trying to leave the country to New Zealand and not upon arrival in Malaysia as claimed by the authorities. This is another lie perpetrated in order to avoid embarrassment to the Saudi authorities that they have allowed Hamza to enter the country on 7 February.

The cold hard truth is that Malaysia has bent over backwards to please Saudi Arabia, breached international law by not allowing Hamza to seek asylum and instead handed him on a silver platter to his persecutors and condemned him to torture and near certain death.

The Home Minister and PDRM have obliterated whatever rule of law and due process left in Malaysia. They have resisted all attempts by Hamza’s lawyers to meet him, detained him in a secret location, cancelled his visa without a reason or hearing, and deported him in unholy haste even though they knew that his lawyers were challenging the detention and have already acquired an interim court injunction (widely tweeted and reported by the online media, served on the Immigration authorities, and faxed to the Home Minister and IGP’s offices).

Lawyers for Liberty will continue to campaign for Hamza’s release and have filed a habeas corpus application today to seek among others, a declaration that Hamza’s arrest and detention were unlawful. The matter has been fixed for hearing on Tuesday, 14 February, 9.30am at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, Jalan Duta Court Complex.

Released by:
Lawyers for Liberty
13 February 2012

For more information, please contact Ms Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, LFL campaign coordinator at: fadiahnadwa9@yahoo.com and or +6012 4651671

Malaysia on Sunday deported a young Saudi journalist wanted in his home country over a Twitter post about the Prophet Mohammed, defying pleas from human rights group who said he faced execution.

Hamza Kashgari, who was detained in Malaysia on Thursday after fleeing Saudi Arabia, has now left the country, national police spokesperson Ramli Yoosuf said.

“He was deported to Saudi Arabia,” Ramli told AFP. A government offical said Kashgari was escorted back to his home country by Saudi officials.

“He has been deported. He was picked up by Saudi officials at the airport,” said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kashgari fled to Muslim-majority Malaysia after making comments on the microblogging site deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed, which triggered outrage and death threats.

Insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam and is a crime punishable by execution in Saudi Arabia.

Persecution

Kashgari’s detention sparked outrage from human rights groups, with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urging Malaysia not to send him back to face severe punishment and possibly a death sentence.

Malaysian rights activist Fadiah Nadwa Fikri condemned the move, saying that a court order to prevent Kashgari’s deportation was secured Sunday but that immigration authorities advised he had already been deported.

“It is a blatant violation of the law and human rights,” she said.

Fadiah said Kashgari’s mother and brother had arrived in Malaysia to seek his release and were distraught at the news of his repatriation.

“They are very distressed. They broke down in tears. They fear for his safety,” she said, adding that they will also return to Saudi Arabia Sunday.

Fadiah said Kashgari had been intending to travel to New Zealand where he planned to seek asylum. He flew to Malaysia via Jordan and was in transit when he was detained.

“He flew to Malaysia because there was no visa requirement,” she said.

No extradition treaty

Malaysia and Saudi Arabia do not have a formal extradition treaty but have close ties as fellow Muslim countries.

The home ministry defended its stance earlier Sunday.

“Malaysia has a long-standing arrangement by which individuals wanted by one country are extradited when detained by the other, and (Kashgari) will be repatriated under this arrangement,” it said in a statement.

“The nature of the charges against the individual in this case are a matter for the Saudi Arabian authorities.”

Human Rights Watch senior Middle East researcher Christoph Wilcke had said Saturday that Malaysia should not be “complicit in sealing Kashgari’s fate by sending him back”, where he would be unlikely to face a fair trial.

Kashgari’s controversial tweet sparked tens of thousands of responses, according to an online service that tracks Twitter postings in the Arab world.

He tweeted: “I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don’t understand about you.

“I will not pray for you.”

Kashgari apologised but a committee of top clerics branded him “an “infidel” and demanded he be tried in an Islamic court, while a Saudi Facebook page calling for his execution has attracted thousands of followers.

AFP
1:35PM Feb 12, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 — Malaysia deported a Saudi Arabian blogger today, police said, despite fears voiced by human rights groups that he could face execution in his home country over Twitter comments he made that were deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammad.

Hamza Kashgari, a 23-year-old columnist, sparked outrage in the oil-rich kingdom with comments posted on the Prophet’s birthday a week ago that led some Islamic clerics to call for him to face the death penalty.

Kashgari fled the country, but was arrested by police in majority-Muslim Malaysia on Thursday as he transited through Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

“The Saudi writer was repatriated to his home country this Sunday morning,” a police spokesman told Reuters. “This is an internal Saudi matter that we cannot comment on.”

Malaysia has a close affinity with many Middle Eastern nations through their shared religion. But it is also a US ally and a leading global voice for moderate Islam, meaning that the decision to extradite Kashgari is certain to be controversial.

“Saudi clerics have already made up their mind that Kashgari is an apostate who must face punishment,” Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Friday.

“The Malaysian government should not be complicit in sealing Kashgari’s fate by sending him back.”

Kashgari’s lawyer in Malaysia, Mohammad Noor, told Reuters by telephone that he had obtained a court order to prevent the deportation, but had not been allowed to see his client.

“If the government of Malaysia deports him to Saudi Arabia, disrespecting the court order, this is clearly contempt of court, unlawful and unacceptable,” he said.

The Star newspaper quoted Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as saying that Kashgari had been repatriated and that the charges against him would be decided by Saudi authorities.

“Malaysia has a longstanding arrangement by which individuals wanted by one country are extradited when detained by the other,” he was quoted as saying.

Blasphemy is a crime punishable by execution under Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islamic syariah law. It is not a capital crime in Malaysia.

Reuters could not verify Kashgari’s comments because he later deleted them, but media reported that one of them reflected his contradictory views of the Prophet — that he both loved and hated him.

Kashgari later said in an interview that he was being made a “scapegoat for a larger conflict” over his comments. — Reuters