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'On facts alone, the PSM 6 should already be freed'

Malaysia Kini - July 27, 2011

Hafiz Yatim – Based only on the facts given by police for their Emergency Ordinance (EO) detention of the six Parti Sosialis Malaysia leaders as movers of the Bersih 2.0 rally, the PSM 6, as they are known, should be released immediately, lawyers say.

Despite the facts being obvious, the detainees, including Sungei Siput MP Dr D Jeyakumar, are still being held and their fate remains uncertain, since the habeas corpus applications for their release will only be heard on Aug 5.

Time is running out for the six, for they still face detention without trial of up to two years after 30 days of detention under the EO.

The sole reason for their detention is found in a police form called "Rights and grounds for arrest under Article 5 (3) of the Federal Constitution".

It states there that the PSM 6 are "penggerak" (movers) of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0), which had called on Malaysians to join a rally on July 9 to push for electoral reforms.

The affidavits-in-reply to the habeas corpus applications the police filed state that the rally would result in fears, frighten the people and lead to disruptions in the daily life of the society. Their action was therefore to secure public order as the Bersih 2.0 actions would result in uneasiness.

This point was raised by the lead counsel for PSM 6, Sulaiman Abdullah, last Friday when the habeas corpus applications were first heard.

"The main, and only reason, for their detention is them being the "penggerak" (movers) of the Bersih rally on July 9. July 9 has been far gone and far over with. Hence the authorities should not detain them any further," Sulaiman said when submitting on this point.

Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Su Geok Yiam noted that this point the senior counsel for the PSM 6 raised was the only reason given in the police affidavits. That period (July 9), Sulaiman stressed in his submission, had already elapsed.

Besides Jeyakumar, the other detainees, who were initially arrested on a bus in Penang on June 24, are M Sarasvathy, A Letchumanan, M Sukumaran, Choo Chon Kai and Sarat Babu.

Securing public order is one of three grounds the authorities can invoke in using the EO against a person. The EO, which is similar to the Internal Security Act, provides for "detention without trial" and has come under stinging criticism since Jeyakumar's detention. This is the first time the EO has been used against a Member of Parliament.

No one can deny the facts

Lawyer Baljit Singh Sidhu, who has dealt with hundreds of habeas corpus applications and has been roped into the PSM 6 defence team, said the fact remained that the reason for the arrests was stated in the arrest form.

"There were other allegations prior to this, of them being held for waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and there were also reports that they are trying torevive communism," Baljit (right) said.

"Now, the police say the PSM 6 are the movers of the Bersih rally, despite the event having ended. There is no valid ground to detain them any further, since the order has outlived its purpose. This is the fact that the authorities cannot deny in court, for it is the only reason stated in their court documents."

The lawyer said the facts spoke for themselves and the authorities could not draw other reasons, other than what the police had filed, as they would certainly look bad on them if they did.

Baljit told Malaysia Kini yesterday that the EO was prone to abuse by the police, that 20 to 30 percent of those detained under the emergency law should not have been detained.

Another lawyer, Edmund Bon (left), who is also part of the legal team, reiterated his earlier statement that the police officer in charge of the detention, Kamarul Zaman Mamat, did not state in his affidavit, as well as in the other 36 affidavits filed by the police force, that communism was the reason for detaining the PSM 6.

"The six PSM detainees are being locked up as scapegoats, just to create a situation that would appear to be like an emergency, simply to discourage people from the July 9 rally," Bon said.

The six are not even part of 14-member Bersih 2.0 steering committee chaired by lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan. A member of the Bersih 2.0 steering committee, SP Subramaniam, has also filed an affidavit denying the involvement of the six in Bersih 2.0.

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