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Drop charges against PSM 6, say Pakatan leaders

Malaysia Kini - August 2, 2011

Drop charges against PSM 6, say Pakatan leaders - Malaysia Kini. August 2, 2011
EO6 Release - Victory of the people - Malaysian Socialist Party (PSM) Statement. July 30, 2011
'Freeing us was a political move' - Free Malaysia Today. July 30, 2011
PSM's EO6 released without conditions - Free Malaysia Today. July 29, 2011
Heroes' welcome for PSM 6 - Malaysian Insider. July 29, 2011

Ipoh Timor MP Lim Kit Siang, and PKR vice-president N Surendran are calling on the attorney-general, police and prime minister to drop the proposed charges the recently released six Parti Sosialis Malaysia leaders are to face in court tomorrow.

Lim said the July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally and the detention of the six PSM leaders under the Emergency Ordinance (EO), including Sungai Siput MP Dr D Jeyakumar, had been disastrously mishandled.

"Attorney-General Gani Patail should drop the charges against the PSM 6. They must realise the public reaction is whether the police and Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration have not made enough spectacles of the July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally and the EO 6 (PSM 6) detention," the DAP adviser said.

Surendran condemned the persecution of the six, and described the latest move to file charges against them after they were released last Friday as "heaping outrage upon outrage".

The PKR vice-president said the ill-treatment of the PSM 6 was an affront to the Malaysian people's sense of justice.

"The fact that the PSM 6 are being charged once again highlights the failure of key national institutions such as the police and prosecution bodies, which are meant to act in the public interest.

"The charging of the PSM 6 is done not in the public interest, but in the interest of the BN government," he said in a strongly-worded statement.

Surendran also demand that the charges against the PSM 6 be dropped and the government apologise to the six for their unlawful and politically-motivated detention under the EO.

It was earlier reported that the six – Choo Chon Kai, Sarat Babu, M Sarasvathy, M Sukumaran, A Letchumanan and Jeyakumar would be charged in a court in Butterworth tomorrow for possession of subversive documents and being members of an unlawful society.

Lim said under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act for possession of subversive documents, a person convicted will face a maximum fine of RM10,000 or five years' jail or both.

"Section 29 of the ISA is a most oppressive and draconian provision as sub-section (4) reverses the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty, providing that "Every document purporting to be a subversive document shall be presumed to be a subversive document until the contrary is proved," said Lim who also has a law degree.