A 48-year-old diver, Ruslan Mat Ali, pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court in Sepang on June 20 to 11 charges of posting offensive and excessively obscene comments about Nurul Izzah Anwar, daughter of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, on Facebook earlier this year.
The charges allege that Ruslan knowingly made and initiated the transmission of offensive content intended to annoy others, using his personal Facebook account.
The posts were allegedly made between January 2 and February 25 and were accessed by authorities on February 4 and February 26 at the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Centre in Cyberjaya.
Ruslan was charged under Section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which carries a maximum penalty of RM50,000, up to one year in prison, or both.
In court, Ruslan claimed his phone had fallen into the water while fishing and denied responsibility for the posts.
“I don’t know where the comments came from. They just kept coming in,” he said.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Fadhli Ab Wahab proposed bail of RM15,000, citing the seriousness of the charges and the shared evidence across all counts. Ruslan, who appeared without legal representation, appealed for a lower bail amount, explaining that he had no steady income and was supporting three children as a single father.
Judge Ahmad Fuad Othman set bail at RM10,000 with one surety and scheduled the next mention of the case for July 18. However, Ruslan was unable to post bail and remains in custody.
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