KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A non-Muslim Chinese couple who posted on Facebook a photo of themselves eating pork during the Islamic month of Ramadan face up to 15 years in prison in Muslim-majority Malaysia for sedition and other crimes.
“They were charged under the Sedition Act, the Film Censorship Act and the Penal Code,” the Malaysia Chronicle reported July 18.
Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee — also known as Tan Jye Yee and Lee May Ling — pleaded not guilty at the Sessions Court in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.
They allegedly posted a photograph of themselves earlier in July smiling at a roadside restaurant while eating pork stew with chopsticks.
The photo included a caption greeting Muslims during Ramadan, plus their personal website address.
In court, Tan said the dinner photo was meant as humor and not as an insult, and he also apologized in a YouTube video asking “for forgiveness for offending Muslims in this holy month of Ramadan.”
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