[UPDATED] Woman in Crackhouse fiasco pleads guilty to alternative charge

KUALA LUMPUR – Siti Nuramira Abdullah has pleaded guilty to a different charge over her open-mic comedy skit last year which allegedly insulted Islam.

She pleaded guilty in the sessions court here today to using words to hurt the religious feelings of others.

The court ordered Nuramira to pay a fine of RM8,000, where failure to do so would lead to imprisonment of four months. Her lawyers Ramesh Chandran and R. Sivaraj told reporters she would be paying the fine.

Her original charge was under Section 298A(1)(a) of the Penal Code, which relates to deliberately causing disunity, ill will, or hatred on the grounds of religion.

Nuramira pleaded guilty before judge N. Priscilla Hemamalini, to Section 298 of the same code, which pertains to having deliberate intent to uttering words that wound the religious feelings of others.

The alternative charge carries a penalty of jail time of up to one year, a fine, or both. The previous charge carried a maximum sentence of five years’ jail.

The alternative charge was offered by deputy public prosecutors Abdul Malik Ayob and Nadia Mohd Izhar in court today.

Nuramira, in her one-time performance at the now-shuttered Crackhouse Comedy Club in June last year, had claimed to be a Muslim and memorised 15 juzuk (chapters) of the Quran, before taking off her headscarf and outer attire before her audience.

During today’s proceedings, Sivaraj requested that his client be treated leniently and only be given a small fine, as she is a first-time offender and is not wealthy.

Deputy public prosecutor Malik responded that the court would decide on a sentence that reflected the seriousness of her actions.

Following the trial’s conclusion, dates of May 26 and 31 have been vacated.

Previously, Nuramira had pleaded not guilty to her initial charge of causing disunity, ill will, or hatred on the grounds of religion.

Only one witness testified in her trial, Muhammad Asyraf Kamal Musthaffa, who was the host at the time of her performance.

Asyraf said Nuramira and her partner Alexander Navin Vijayachandran, whom she identified as her husband, were both informed of the clubhouse’s unwritten rules, which include avoiding sensitive topics and 3R elements (race, religion, and royalty).

Alexander was charged separately under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for improper use of network facilities in uploading videos of Nuramira’s performance.

The Crackhouse Comedy Club owners, Mohamad Rizal Johan Van Geyzel and Shankar R. Santhiram, are suing Kuala Lumpur City Hall, which shut down their club and also banned them  for life from starting any new business in the federal territory. – The Vibes, April 17, 2023