KUALA LUMPUR: A 68-year-old man, who was charged at the Sessions Court today with two counts of insulting Prophet Muhammad on his Facebook page, has been jailed after he failed to raise RM20,000 bail set by the court.
Wai Foo Sing had earlier pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him before judge M. Edwin Paramjothy.
The accused, who wore a yellow T-shirt and a pair of black pants, appeared calm and kept silent throughout the proceedings, which began at 10.35am.
Wai was charged with uploading an insulting caricature of Prophet Muhammad and his wife Saidatina Aishah to his Facebook account, with the profile name "Foo Sing Wai".
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Muhamad Asyraf Md Kamal did not offer bail but suggested a sum of RM30,000 with one surety if the court decided to grant bail.
"This case has attracted the public's attention and a low bail amount may jeopardise the people's view of the judiciary." he said.
However, the accused, who was unrepresented, requested for a lower bail saying he was old and jobless.
"My son is coming to post bail but I do not know how much money (he) brought," he said.
The court set bail at RM20,000 with one surety and set April 5 for case re-mention.
The accused was believed to have been taken to the Sungai Buloh prison.
On the first charge, under Section 298 A (1) of the Penal Code, Wai was accused of causing disharmony, disunity or feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will on grounds of religion among the people of different religions in the country, which provides imprisonment of up to five years if found guilty.
His post was read at 12pm on Feb 18.
He was alleged to have committed the offence at 5pm on Feb 17 at the office of the Cyber Crime and Multimedia Investigation Division, Commercial Crime Investigation Department, 27th floor, Menara KPJ, Bukit Aman police headquarters here.
For the second count, Wai was charged with transmitting offensive communication with the intent to cause annoyance to other people on his Facebook account at the same place, time and date.
The accused was charged under Section 233 (1) (a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which provides a jail term of up to one year or a fine or both if found guilty.
It was reported last week that Wai was arrested by police and subsequently released after a three-day remand.