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Families Of Arrested Leaders Demand Police Apology
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Malaysian police should immediately release the seven reformasi activists detained last week under the Internal Security Act (ISA), said wives and lawyers of the arrested Sunday.
Last week, police arrested the seven for allegedly planning violent street demonstrations and other "militant" methods to topple the government.
The seven are National Justice Party (NJP) vice-president Tian Chua, party Youth leaders Mohamed Ezam Mohamed Noor, N. Gobalakrishnan, Abdul Ghani Harun, Saari Sungib, Free Anwar Campaign Webmaster Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin and social activist and malaysiakini columnist Hishamuddin Rais.
Malyasia's Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) condemned the arrests and called for the immediate release of the seven, adding that it "deeply regretted" the use of ISA for the arrests.
Families castigated Police Chief Norian Mai "for deliberately defaming the detainees," adding that any failure to free them within 48 hours would prompt a fresh court action against the police chief.
On Monday, a Kuala Lumpur High Court judge disqualified himself from hearing a habeas corpus application by five ISA detainees for their release on the grounds that the prosecutor in charge of the case was his brother.
Justice Abdul Wahab Patail adjourned the matter to be heard before another High Court judge tomorrow morning.
The case will now be heard before either justices Augustine Paul who presided over Anwar Ibrahim's first trial, or Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin.
The families of five of the detainees filed a habeas corpus application Thursday seeking their immediate release. The five were arrested in Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday and Wednesday.
The application stated that the detention was "unlawful, done in bad faith and was politically motivated." It also denied allegations made by the Inspector General of Police that the five were part of a cell within the reformasi movement planning a violent uprising against the government with the use of explosives and grenade launchers.
Counsel for the five, R. Sivarasah, said on Monday a similar application for the remaining two, Keadilan Youth leaders Gobalakrishnan, who was arrested in Langkawi, Kedah, and Abdul Ghani, arrested in Kuching, Sarawak, will be made in the Penang High Court soon.
Sivarasah said he would be making an application Tuesday for the detainees to be brought to the court.
He later told reporters it is a well-known fact that within the history of ISA use, detainees have been ill-treated while in detention.
"We are worried about their physical well-being and with their presence, we can see them and take instructions from them," he said.
He added that there were no prohibitions in the law preventing ISA detainees from appearing in court.
In a strongly worded letter, lawyers representing the families stated that in addition to a full apology from Mai, that within 48 hours from the date of the letter the police chief should forward written undertakings to desist from making allegations against the detainees, that a draft apology and retraction be forwarded to the families of what he alleged during a press conference, that a sum be nominated for damages against the police chief and that he retract allegations by publishing an apology in the local press.
The ISA allows detention without trial indefinitely and is considered one of the most oppressive laws still in existence in Malaysia.
The families have been denied access to the detainees. The police also refuse to allow lawyers to meet them, prompting fear for their well being.
In 1998, Anwar Ibrahim was beaten unconscious and denied medical attention for days while detained under the ISA.
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