Dog lover Chetz remanded in Johor

Former dog trainer Chetz Togom will continue to be detained in Johor as the police there this morning obtained a two day remand order to continue investigations.

This remand order on the maker of the controversial YouTube Raya wish video with her dogs will end on Friday night.

The lawyer representing G Visvanathan Nair Chetz, whose real name is Maznah Mohd Yusof, said she was brought to registrar at the Segamat Court.

Visvanathan said police initially apply for up to four days remand for 38-year-old engineer but he objected to this.

"I objected and asked for her immediate release because the police have no reason to extend their detention and prolong the investigations," he told Astro AWANI.

Among the arguments Visvanathan presented before the court was that Chetz had already been interrogated by Special Branch police as well as the Malaysian Commisison of Multimedia and Communication, since Wednesday morning.

"Also, she has already has admitted to being the maker of the video in a police report. The police no longer require to prove that fact. Furthermore, this video can also be accessed by anyone on the Internet."

Visvanathan said he has argued that it is unfair for the police to bring her to Segamat based on the reason that there was a police report lodged there.

"If there are 100 police report in Malaysia, is my client to be brought to 100 places?"

To that, Visvanathan said, the officer who brought Chetz to court promised that if there were new reports, the investigation will also be handled by the Segamat police as well.

At about 4am this morning, Chetz driven from Bukit Aman to the police station Segamat, following a half-day interrogation at by the commercial crime police of Bukit Aman. It was learnt that her phone has also been confiscated from her this morning.

Chetz is being investigated under the Sedition Act on top of Section 298A of the Penal Code over the controversial video.

Speaking to Astro AWANI this morning, her lawyer N. Surendran said that shifting Chetz to Johor amounted to ‘punishing’ the detainee.

“To say she must to be brought to another state just because a police report was lodged there is just improper and sheer harassment,” said Surendran.

“The police should not inconvenience or punish a person that has not been charged or convicted of anything. They have the power to do this but do they have the right?” he asked.

Since noon yesterday, the authorities began acting on the video, Chetz was questioned by the Special Branch at the Bukit Sentosa police station and the Malaysian Commission of Communication and Multimedia(MCMC) also went to her house in Bukit Beruntung to confiscate her laptop and other belongings. She was arrested at Bukit Aman police at about 4.30pm.

When contacted, Johor police chief Datuk Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Sharif declined to comment on the case, saying that Bukit Aman should respond.

Since Tuesday, a video Chetz posted on YouTube three years ago re-surfaced with Muslims claiming that she has insulted the religion, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.

Chetz, a Muslim herself, has denied that she has done anything wrong and has said she would not apologise.

In the one minute 44-second video, Chetz is seen walking and bathing her three dogs. “Takbir Raya”, the Muslim call to prayer for the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, plays in the background.

The video also shows her washing herself and her dogs. While critics claimed that it seem to mimic the wudhu, ablution performed by Muslims before prayer, Chetz has denied that was the case.

Chetz also shared Raya cookies with the dogs in the video before ending with the words ‘Raikanlah Aidilfitri bersama-sama, tanpa mengira spesis, warna, asal- usul’ (Celebrate Aidilfitri together irrespective of species, colour and origin).

Chetz has been the target of not only hate speech but has received death threats.

In interviews, she insisted that what she did was not intended to insult the religion and that her helping and caring of her dogs were in fact in accordance to Islamic teachings and the Quran.

She had told Astro AWANI that she simply wanted to show people how to clean their dogs and that her message was that Hari Raya should be shared with all, humans and animals alike.