Chow Mun Fai was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for a series of tweets that were deemed blasphemous and "beyond the limits of free speech" by the court in Kuala Lumpur. He said he was assaulted while awaiting trial.
Chow Mun Fai, Malaysian hawker, was charged for misuse of social media platforms after posting allegedly insulting content about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison in August 2019, the judge making the standard argument that blasphemous or religiously insulting comments can and will cause religious tension and are thus not covered under free expression rights. Chow also claims that, while detained and awaiting trial, he had been beaten and had his glasses broken.
"The actions of the accused were excessive and went beyond the limit of freedom of expression." - judge who presided over the case
This was actually not the first time that Chow’s social media posts landed him in prison. For much the same reasons—insulting Islam—he was sentenced to a year in September 2014.
Malaysia's constitution establishes Islam as the state religion. Though this is ostensibly only symbolic, meant to affirm the importance of the Islamic faith to the Muslim-majority country, in practice there is much overlap between mosque and state. Blasphemy laws target anyone who insults religion or incites religious hatred in the judgment of the authorities; atheists, agnostics, and other religiously unaffiliated are discriminated against.