The court maintained the RM1,900 fine on the two-term Shah Alam MP, which is below the RM2,000 minimum that would have disqualified him as an elected representative or his eligibility to contest in an election.
Article 48 of the Federal Constitution disqualifies a person from being an elected representative for five years if he is convicted and sentenced to more than one year in jail, or fined more than RM2,000.
At today’s hearing, the Shariah Appeal Court denied leave for chief sharie prosecutor Sofian Ahmad to appeal against a Shariah High Court decision last year that reduced Khalid’s fine to RM1,900 for teaching Islam without credentials.
Shariah judge Aidi Moktar, who led a three-member panel, said the sharie prosecutor did not fulfil the threshold under Section 167(1) of the Shariah Criminal Procedure (State of Selangor) Enactment to obtain leave.
“The state sharie prosecutor failed to show questions of law and issues of public interest for the court to determine,” he said.
Speaking to reporters outside the court, Khalid expressed relief that his seven-year battle at the Shariah Court had ended.
“If the case had proceeded and the court increased the fine to more than RM2,000, my political opponents from Barisan Nasional would try to push the election returning officer to disqualify me,” he said.
In January last year, Khalid was fined RM2,900 by the Lower Shariah Court in Klang for giving a religious talk without credentials, an offence under Section 119(1) of the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment.
He committed the offence at a surau in Taman Seri Sementa, Klang, seven years ago.
However the Shariah High Court reduced his fine to RM1,900 in November.
Shariah judge Salehan Yatim said in his judgment that this was the Amanah communications director’s first offence, and a RM2,900 fine would have disqualified Khalid and left his constituents with no representative.
Khalid previously said he would not appeal against his conviction for teaching Islam without credentials. He also said there was a need to amend the state Islamic law to clearly define “teaching”.
Asked if he would defend his Shah Alam seat in GE14, Khalid said he would leave the decision to the Amanah leadership.
“It is all right with me even if they tell me not to contest,” he said.
Khalid also said today was the deadline for Pakatan Harapan (PH) component parties to complete their seat negotiations for Selangor.
If they cannot meet the deadline, they will have to hand the issue over to the top PH leaders to decide.
“We (Amanah) are targeting between 11 and 13 state seats out of the 15 won by PAS five years ago,” he said, adding that the remainder would be given to PPBM.
Amanah, a splinter party formed by PAS dissidents, is a member of PH alongside PPBM, PKR and DAP.
Khalid did not rule out the possibility of Amanah president Mohamad Sabu being fielded to replace current Amanah Kota Raja MP Siti Mariah Mahmud in the constituency.
“I was not in the PH meeting today because of my court case. But it is likely they will decide who to contest in which seats,” he said.
Khalid: I can contest in GE14 despite appeal on religious offence