Press Release:Denial of access to legal representation is a gross human rights violation

The Bar Council is concerned that since the arrest of 9 individuals of Nigerian, Syrian and Yemeni nationalities under the Internal Security Act (1960) on 21 January 2010, they have not been allowed access to lawyers. These individuals have since then remained in continuous detention whilst their whereabouts and condition remain unknown.

The right to legal representation upon arrest remains an important right against any form of trangression on the rights of detainees.

Any attempt to justify these arrests will trivialise the Government’s attempt to reform ISA and implement fundamental and universal human rights.

We condemn the arrest of these persons under the ISA as it is arbitrary and a gross violation of international human rights norms. It goes against the very essence of humanity when these persons are deprived of any right to defend themselves! The rule of law and constitutional rights are applicable to all, citizens and non-citizens.

We call for the abolition of the ISA and for the immediate release of these arrested persons or otherwise, that they be charged in a court of law.


Ragunath Kesavan
President
Malaysian Bar
23 February 2010 [link]

Allow ISA detainees to meet family members, lawyers

KUALA LUMPUR: The Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA (GMI) movement and Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) have urged the police to allow Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees to meet family members and lawyers.

GMI chairman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh said the call was made through a memorandum handed over to the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan at Bukit Aman on Monday.

He said the memorandum was received by Bukit Aman public relations officer Chief Inspector Mohd Zaki Abu Bakar.

Several ISA detainees, including foreigners, have been denied permission to meet family members and the right to seek legal assistance although they have been detained for 31 days, he said after leading a delegation of 10 GMI and Suaram representatives to hand over the memorandum.

Lawyer Syahredzan Johan said a habeas corpus application had been filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court for permission to meet the detainees and it would be heard on March 10.

“We made the application after learning that there is a plan to deport several foreign detainees although their rights to seek legal assistance had not been granted.

“We also want to ensure that their health, food and welfare are looked after,” he added. [link]

Press Statement: 17 February 2010 Charge Or Release Them!

Press Statement: 17 February 2010
Charge Or Release Them!

Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA (GMI) and Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) condemn the decision by the Home Minister to extradite the nine Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees to their countries without any explanation to their family members and people of Malaysia. The nine detainees are among those detainees who have been detained currently under the draconian ISA. They were arrested under the ISA on Thursday, 21st January 2010 at Sungai Cincin, Gombak when they were attending an informal religious class at Sungai Cincin. They were allegedly linked to international terrorist organisation.

GMI and Suaram also strongly condemn the new arrest and also deportation of these detainees. We also learned that until today the detainees have not been allowed for legal access. We urged the police and the government to allow the detainees for legal assistance and immediately stop their planning to deport them.

GMI and Suaram values security of the country and does not condone any terrorist activities, but one’s entitlement to a fair trial should not be deprived on any basis. If the government has evidence against the suspects, we urge the government to charge them in an open court, in accordance with their right to defend themselves, the right to legal counsel and the right to a fair trial. Otherwise, they should be released without any delay and unconditionally.

We call up on the government to take the necessary steps to effectively repeal the law in order to respect fundamental rights and freedoms. Abolish the draconian ISA which allows and provides for arbitrary arrest and detention without trial for an indefinite period now!.

Abolish ISA!
Release All ISA detainees!
Close down Kamunting Camp!

Released by,
Nalini.E
Secretariat GMI & Suaram Coordinator
019-3758912 019-3758912

Press Release: Use of the ISA cannot be justified

The Malaysian Bar has persistently adopted the position that all laws that allow for detention without trial, including the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA), should be repealed immediately. We have been in dialogue with the Government, advocating that it go beyond a mere review of the repressive ISA, to abolish it completely, and we welcomed the release last year of several detainees who had been held under the ISA.

The Malaysian Bar is therefore shocked and astounded that once again, the Government has resorted to this offensive legislation as a basis for arresting and detaining both Malaysians and foreigners, and is also brandishing it in respect of recent attacks against churches. We unequivocally denounce this approach. The alleged reasons for the detention are immaterial, as there can be no justification for this blatant transgression of the fundamental principle of justice.

It bears repeating that the detention of persons without trial is an unjustified infringement of universal principles of human rights, and a violation of the Rule of Law and the principles of a democratic Government. Among other reasons, detention without trial violates a person’s right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty and his/her right to a fair and public trial where he/she may be defended.

The ISA is not a solution to any perceived threat to our peace. In fact, we fail to see what threat there is to our peace that could possibly justify the use of the severely blunt instrument of the ISA. The avowed grounds of arrest are all matters that come within the purview of existing laws in the country. Furthermore, laws like the ISA do not allow for judicial oversight and are therefore susceptible to serious abuse.

The use of the ISA, far from relieving any perceived tension, has instead created far more uneasiness and unhappiness amongst right-thinking people in Malaysia.

Once again, the Malaysian Bar strongly calls upon the Government to repeal the ISA and all other laws that allow for the detention of persons without trial. Furthermore, the Government must immediately and unconditionally release all persons presently detained under such laws, and where appropriate, prosecute them in a public and fair trial.

We have said it before and we will say it again – if there are perceived offences, charge these people and give them their fundamental right to defend themselves.

Ragunath Kesavan
President
Malaysian Bar

3 February 2010 [link]

GMI claims 14, not 10, held under ISA

By Debra Chong

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — The Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA (GMI) today claimed that 14 people, including a Malaysian, were being held under the recent Internal Security Act (ISA) swoop, as opposed to the 10 announced by the Home Ministry yesterday.

It identified nine of the detainees as Azzahari Murad (Malaysia); Aiman Al Dakkak (Syria); Mohamed Hozifa (Syria); Kutiba Al-Issa (Syria); Khalid Salem (Yemen); Luqman Abdul Salam (Nigeria); Hassan Barudi (Syria); Hussam Khalid (Jordan); and Abdul Alhi Bolajoko Uthman (Nigeria).

It has yet to determine the identities of the remaining three while another two were detained earlier. GMI said the 14 were part of 50 detained in a security operation in Sungai Cincin, Gombak near here, GMI chairman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh disclosed today

Syed Ibrahim told reporters that all 50 were picked up on Jan 21, after having stayed there since 2003.

“So they are not foreigners who have just arrived here,” he said, disputing Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s statement that those detained had just come to Malaysia and were part of an international terror ring.

Syed Ibrahim disclosed that of the 50 picked up, all but 12 were released at 3am the next day.

“From the 12, GMI obtained nine names and we are trying to establish the [identities of the] other three and two more we just found out today,” he added.

He said the latter two were identified as Abdullah Ahmad Alsehine (Saudi Arabia) who was detained on Jan 17, and Ibrahim (Nigeria) who was initially detained on Jan 21.

“Ibrahim has yet to be detected with the other four until now,” he added.

Syed Ibrahim also said information from the Saudi Arabian embassy showed that Abdullah was still in the country.

A witness to the security operation, Muhammad Yunus Zainal Abidin, 25, who was also at today’s press conference, recounted how armed policemen had burst into the house at about 9.30pm that night, disrupting the study session led by Aiman.

“They said: ‘Ini operasi keselamatan dalam negeri’ (this is a home affairs security operation),” Yunus told reporters.

It is understood that this is the first time that a large number of foreign students have been detained under the ISA since the Sept 11 attacks in the United States.

“Using the ISA to get forced confessions and creating a plot without proof is unfair.

“ISA is the easiest tool to shift international pressure by making foreign nationals, in this case [from] the Middle East, as the scapegoats,” he added.

“GMI believes that the new detentions may have been initiated in response to international pressure on terrorist threats in Malaysia,” said Syed Ibrahim.

“It might be related to the US travel advisory two weeks ago about criminals and terrorists targeting foreigners in east Sabah or to what is happening in the US and UK,” he said.

“But nothing can be confirmed,” he said, and added that he will raise the issue directly with Hishammuddin this afternoon at the government briefing on itst plans to revamp the ISA.

Syed Ibrahim added that the latest developments showed double standards by the government, which has promised to reform the ISA.

The ISA is a preventive security law that allows for detention without trial.

Media reports today said that those detained were linked to the Nigerian underwear bomber who tried to detonate explosives aboard a US-bound flight last Christmas Day.

[link]

New Detention Under ISA Yet Again

GERAKAN MANSUHKAN ISA

PRESS STATEMENT: 28th January 2010

Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA (GMI) is astonished to learn of the latest arrest under the infamous Internal
Security Act (ISA) in the midst of Government’s talks about reviewing the Act. GMI
condemns the new arrest under the ISA. The invokation of the ISA against these
individuals is totally against the fundamental principal of human rights,
justice and the international human rights standards.

News yesterday reported Home Affairs Minister as saying that ten were arrested under the ISA for terrorism and international terrorist networking. He confirmed that the ten arrested were linked to international terrorist organisation.

However according to the information received by GMI, we learn that there were around 50
people who were arrested under the ISA on Thursday, 21st January
2010 at Sungai Cincin, Gombak when they were attending an informal religious
class at Sungai Cincin. The house they were at was forced into without warning
by the police action forces using force and weapons. It seems that having
religious classes can be construed as threatening national security and high
security forces must be deployed.

Among the 50 arrested that night, only 12 have been detained further and the rest were released
at around 3 am on 22nd January 2010. From the 12, GMI manages to
acquire nine names and is still trying to attain the other three. The nine are:

1. Azzahari bin Murad (Malaysian)
2. Aiman Al Dakkak (Syrian Nationality), USM PHD Student
3. Mohamed Hozifa (Syrian Nationality)- Son of Aiman Al Dakkak
4. Kutiba Al-Issa (Syrian Nationality)- Student
5. Khalid Salem (Yamani Nationality)- Student
6. Luqman Abdul Salam (Nigerian Nationality)- Student
7. Hassan Barudi (Syrian Nationality)
8. Hussam Khalid (Jordanian Nationality)
9. Abdul Alhi Bolajoko Uthman (Nigerian Nationality)

GMI strongly condemns the new arrest under the ISA. The Government must guarantee safety of the detainees
and notify the families. Legal assistance should be allowed. The government also
must clarify the status of the other three who are believed to have been arrested
together with all those names mentioned above. The ISA allows and provides for
arbitrary arrest and detention without trial for an indefinite period. Under
the ISA, detainees can be held for up to 60 days in secret locations and in
solitary confinement, often in a windowless cell where they lose all sense of
time and are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. Detainees have been
assaulted, forced to strip, deprived of sleep, food and water, told that their
families would be harmed, and subjected to prolonged aggressive interrogation
to force confessions or obtain information.

GMI believes that the new detention may have been initiated in response to international
pressure on terrorist threats in Malaysia. It may be related to US travel advisory alert for the last two weeks
for potential criminal and terrorist groups planning or intending acts of
violence against foreigners in eastern Sabah or it may be connected with other
incidences in US and UK.
But nothing can be confirmed. Using ISA to confirm this by means of possibly
forcing confessions or creating unproven plots and links is unjust and
unscrupulous. In any case, ISA is a convenient tool to use to avert pressure by
making foreigners, in this case mostly from Middle East region, as scapegoats.

GMI values security of the country and does not condone any terrorist activities, but
one’s entitlement to a fair trial should not be deprived on any basis. If the
government has evidence against the suspects, we urge the government to charge
them in an open court, in accordance with their right to defend themselves, the
right to legal counsel and the right to a fair trial. Otherwise, they should be
released without any delay and unconditionally. Arrests made do not justify the
importance of ISA. Arrests made without any shred of evidence and trials
justify the abolishment of the draconian ISA.Accusing someone of
committing crime without producing credible evidence is slanderous; detaining
someone without trial, and not giving him a chance to defend himself is
barbaric!

It is ashamed that the government is again practising double standards on issues related to
ISA. On one hand, plans to review the ISA and to release detainees were
announced last year but on the other hand, new detention were carried out discretely
as no prior announcements were made. The
secrecy and unscrupulous practice that surround the use of ISA goes against the
principles of justice, truth and transparency. It again exhibited the true
colour of the ISA, which is extremely arbitrary and has nothing to do with
national security. It has further confirmed that the ISA is only a political
tool used to silence dissidents and criticisms against the government. We
demand the government to release them immediately or charge them in open court.

GMI urges the people of Malaysia to demand for the release of all ISA detainees and abolish the ISA once and for
all. Lets us fight for our rights and for a better Malaysia without the ISA which
allows detention without trial.

Abolish the ISA!!!
Release all ISA detainees!!!
Close KEMTA!!!


Syed Ibrahim
Syed Noh
Chairman GMI
013-3682067

Released by,

Nalini.E
Secretariat GMI
0193758912