KUALA LUMPUR – Lawyer Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid has been receiving online death threats after Malaysia’s apex Federal Court on Feb 9 supported her legal challenge to annul 16 provisions of Islamic criminal laws enacted by Kelantan state.

The court’s eight-to-one majority decision raised an uproar among Malay-Muslim opposition parties and conservative Muslims, who have painted the move as an interference in how Islamic law is carried out in Malaysian states.

But government officials, including Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, have said the invalidated provisions are already covered by federal laws.

Malaysia’s legal system allows state legislatures to enact laws only when they are not covered by the federal Parliament, they said.

Ms Nik Elin made three police reports in 2023 when the case started attracting attention from her critics, and she received threats on social media in the same year.

“I have lost count of how many threats there have been because these individuals do not understand,” she told the New Straits Times daily on Feb 10.

“If only they would take the time to read and understand the laws and the reasons behind the challenge, they would understand.”

Ms Nik Elin and her daughter, Tengku Yasmin Natasha Tengku Abdul Rahman – both Kelantanese – challenged the constitutionality of 18 provisions in Kelantan’s Syariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019.

The panel on the apex court, chaired by the Chief Justice, Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, struck down 16 of the 18 criminal provisions.

Among the invalidated provisions are those related to gambling, incest, destroying a place of worship, sodomy and sexual harassment.

Chief Justice Maimun, in reading out the judgment, said the issue was whether the Kelantan state legislature enacted the laws after exceeding the limitations set by the federal Constitution.

“The power of Parliament and state legislatures are limited by the federal Constitution, and they cannot make any laws they like,” said Malaysia’s head judge, who is also from Kelantan.

She said Ms Nik Elin and Ms Yasmin were not individuals going against “God’s laws”, but were simply questioning whether such provisions could be enacted by the Kelantan assembly.

But Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan, secretary-general of the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia, accused the Federal Court of overreach.

“We are very saddened today. This is a ‘Black Friday’ for syariah law,” he told reporters on Feb 9.

“Defending syariah (law) means upholding the institution of the Malay rulers,” he added.

“Syariah laws are applied only in the Syariah Court, but (now) annulled by the civil court. What does that mean?”

Senior constitutional lawyer Rajan Navaratnam said similar laws in other states like those of Kelantan’s provisions – which could now be deemed unconstitutional – would not be valid and would be struck down as they offend the Constitution.

“With the highest court’s decision, any person that has been charged or will be brought to court on provisions that are considered unconstitutional would have to challenge them in court by applying to have them struck out as they are considered void and unenforceable,” he told The Straits Times.

Those who are charged under the existing Islamic enactments that are now unconstitutional can also file a suit against the state government and the religious authorities as long as they take action within a three-year period, human rights lawyer Siti Kasim said.

Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abdul Rahman Sebli, the dissenting judge in the Federal Court’s decision, in his judgment said Ms Nik Elin and her daughter did not have legal standing to raise the matter as they were not aggrieved parties.

He said they had failed to show how the enactment had “violated” their constitutional rights.

“They contended only that the state assembly was not empowered to pass the enactment,” he added.

Datuk Seri Anwar has tried to distance himself from the controversy, saying the case was allowed to proceed under the previous federal government.

“The decision also has nothing to do with Syariah (Court)... or the powers of the state,” he told civil servants in Melaka on Feb 9.

“Let’s say (during) the state legislative assembly sitting next month, the chief minister enacts several new laws conflicting with state powers and the powers of the federal Constitution, then it can be referred to the Federal Court and if the court finds it conflicting, it will annul it,” he added.

Mr Halmie Azrie Abdul Halim, a senior analyst at political risk consultancy Vriens and Partners, said: “The Kelantan government should have refrained from bulldozing these overlapping laws at their state assembly, and instead consulted state legal advisers with syariah background and federal lawyers with civil background before passing them.”