Sources said Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) and its president Jerry W A Dusing last month filed a notice of discontinuance at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

“It was filed in the third week of April,” said the source, who declined to elaborate.

FMT understands that the withdrawal was meant to reciprocate the government’s decision to abandon its appeal against a High Court ruling in the case involving Jill Ireland, a Sarawakian woman who the court declared had the right to use the term “Allah” in her religious education.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers discontinued its appeal in the second week of April.

Senior federal counsel Shamsul Bolhassan, when contacted by FMT, confirmed that SIB and Dusing had brought their suit to a close.

“We were served a copy of the notice (of discontinuance),” he said, adding that the parties had already filed their respective written submissions in preparation of the hearing, which was scheduled to take place on May 29.

The church and Dusing filed a judicial review application in December, 2007, against the home ministry and the government over their right to use the word “Allah” when referring to God in their religious publications.

The suit came about after Malay-language Christian religious books containing the word “Allah”, brought in from Surabaya, Indonesia, were seized by the customs department at the low-cost carrier terminal in Sepang in August 2007.

The books were returned to SIB in January 2008.

SIB, however, was also seeking a declaration that it has the constitutional right to use the word in its publications and for educational purposes.

In May 2014, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed the church’s application for leave to begin judicial review proceedings, but that decision was reversed by the Court of Appeal in October 2014.