KUCHING: The High Court yesterday found that Alister Cogia was mentally sound when he insulted Islam and Prophet Muhammad on his Facebook page.
High Court judge Azhari Kamal Ramli, after reviewing the mental health report from Sentosa Hospital yesterday, ordered the case to be re-mentioned on August 2.
The report showed that during his three months observation period at the hospital, Alister’s mental state was stable and did not show signs of any issue.
On March 9, the 22-year-old from Singai in Bau District was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined RM50,000 for all 10 charges under Section 298A of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998.
For the charge under Section 298 of the Penal Code he was given a 10-year jail sentence, and for a charge under Section of the Communication Act he was fined a total of RM50,000 or 10 months imprisonment.
He was charged with making offensive remarks on his Facebook account under the name “Ayea” at 7.11pm on Feb 9, at 12.56am on Feb 10, at 1.28am on Feb 14, at 10pm on Feb 24, and at 10.05pm on Feb 24.
On March 3, he was arrested at his house in Singai at 12.15am.
Following his sentencing, certain parties seek for re-examination of the case as they said Alister was suffering from mental illness, which led the High Court to send him to Sentosa Hospital for observation for three months.
