
The Provincial Court in Narathiwat province has formally arraigned a famous Malaysian singer and five other defendants on drug charges and set hearings for next month.
Wan Norsahiddah Wan Ismail and her co-defendants, including her husband, were taken to the court on Tuesday to hear the charges after they were filed by public prosecutors.
They were accused of consuming and possessing drugs after all were arrested at a hotel in Sungai Kolok district on Nov 1 with 6,059 methamphetamine pills. They have been in custody since then.
Prosecutors in the southern province indicted them on Jan 3, according to the New Straits Times.
Wan Norsahiddah Wan Ismail, 30, is known in the entertainment world in Malaysia as Eda Ezrin. She is famous for singing dikir barat in the modern style. Dikir barat, popular in the border regions of northern Malaysia and southern Thailand, combines singing with dancing and poetry.
Her home base is in Kelantan state, opposite Narathiwat.
All of the defendants admitted to the charge of taking drugs but denied another charge on possessing narcotics, Bernama reported on Tuesday.
Judge Yuan Khaokham, who read out the charges through an interpreter, advised them to come up with solid evidence to fight the allegation of possession, the Malaysian news agency said.
Two defendants in the group were charged with illegally entering Narathiwat from Kelantan and they pleaded guilty, it added.
The court has set the first hearing on Feb 11.
The arrest of the singer and her friends in November drew national attention in Malaysia due to her popularity.

The Narathiwat Provincial Court. (Photo: Narathiwat Provincial Court website)