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Irene Fernandez's trial should never have taken place

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Irene Fernandez acquitted .

Irene Fernandez, director of Tenaganita was arrested and charged on March 18, 1996 under the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984 after she exposed the horrific and inhumane conditions in Immigration detention centers in Malaysia through a Memorandum entitled ‘Abuse, Torture and Dehumanised Conditions of Migrant Workers in Detention Centres' to the government in July 1995.

After seven years at the magistrate’s court, in October 2003, Irene was sentenced to a 12-month imprisonment after being found guilty of maliciously publishing false news. She was allowed bail pending appeal.

On October 28, 2008, the defence lawyer M. Puravalen, told the court that while he has received as many as 8,988 pages of handwritten and typed notes amounting to a total of eight volumes of documents - including exhibits - portions of them are ‘incomprehensible’.

‘In other words, the evidence cannot be understood’, he said.

Puravelan said that as the situation is ‘unprecedented to a large extent in terms of the law’, the options and the ultimate decision taken would have to be considered very carefully.

This trial - filled with glitches and concerns - faced a new challenge where the appeal records were incomprehensible including serious errors in the notes of evidence. It also reveals the court system and the inherent weaknesses of keeping of records to ensure the basics for justice and liberties of persons.

This trial should never have happened if Malaysia had respect for rights, freedom, democracy and an independent judiciary system.

It was a trial where freedom of expression was challenged; where a human rights defender was criminalized; where there was absolute disregard for the rights of detainees and minorities like migrant workers and refugees.

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