By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-19 09:51:53 | Updated at 2025-03-20 19:08:11
1 day ago
An elderly Malaysian man is set to be charged on Wednesday with allegedly slapping a non-Muslim man for eating during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
Abdul Razak Ismail, 65, faces a charge of voluntarily causing hurt for assaulting an ethnic Chinese man during a confrontation at a shopping centre convenience store in southern Johor state on Sunday.
Videos of an elderly man in a black robe berating a 21-year-old for eating in public went viral, adding to the brewing public outrage over the perceived surge in religious policing by both authorities and devotees during the annual fasting month, which started in early March.
Initially, Abdul Razak was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on Wednesday morning despite pleading guilty to the charge.
But hours later the attorney general’s chambers (AGC) said it had resolved a “technical issue” related to the initial charge, paving the way for prosecutors to bring the suspect back before the court.
The AGC did not say what was problematic with the initial charge.
