Teratai 16 freed on police bail

Teratai assemblyperson Jenice Lee and 15 others were released on police bail at 11am after spending three nights in police lock-up.

They were brought to the Ampang magistrate's court before they were released.

They have been instructed to report back to the Ampang district police headquarters on June 10.

The released persons were greeted by a group of supporters and DAP members.

Immediately upon the release, Lee complained on the conditions of the police lock-up.

Lee and the others were arrested on Thursday night for holding an alleged illegal assembly.

However DAP leader Lim Kit Siang's personal assistant Lim Swee Kuan, among those arrested, had said that the group had only gathered to celebrate his 26th birthday.

"But when we came down to the road (from Lee's service centre), a police officer shouted to us, saying that we were holding an illegal assembly," he had said.

When asked today if she would organise similar candlelight vigil in the future, Lee said:

"That depends on what kind of assembly. On Thursday we were just celebrating a birthday.

"Malaysians have to defend the right to celebrate birthdays. What is the justifiable ground to stop celebration of birthday?" she asked.

"We did what was provided by the constitution, and the police act is unjustifiable," she said.

Was it a police set-up?

Lee also accused the police of acting in a harsh and highhanded manner before arresting them.

She further claimed that the police had closed all exits for them to disperse before proceeding to arrest them.

"When they wanted us to disperse, and while we were doing that, I asked the police officer to let us sing one last birthday song (for Lim).

"The police chief however pushed me away without listening to me. He also refused to reply to me. And then they started to arrest.

"Our people wanted to go back to my office but the police had shut the door. We could not go back. What is the meaning of this? Did they make up the whole incident to trap us?" she asked.

Just before leaving the Ampang court this morning, Lee and the others sang a birthday song for Lim. The police just watched without doing anything.

No evidence of violence

Gobind Singh Deo, one of the lawyers for the arrested 16, urged the police to drop all charges against them.

"The Police Act must be read with the federal constitution. The constitution says that the people of this country have the right to assemble peacefully.

"In this case, this 16 people assembled peacefully. There is no evidence of violence or any unrest for the police to deem it as an offence," he said.

A day after their arrest, police obtained a two-day remand order to complete their investigations under the Police Act.

Under the Act, anyone found guilty gathering without a police permit faces a jail term of up to one year or a fine between RM2,000 and RM10,000.

Ampang Jaya district police chief Abd Jalil Hassan had said that the 16 were arrested after failing to disperse despite being given four warnings to do so.

The 16 - 12 men and four women - were arrested at about 8.45pm on Thursday night after for holding a candlelight vigil outside Lee's service centre to mourn the 'death of democracy' in Perak. The vigil was organised by Pandan DAP Youth wing.

Apart from Lee and Lim, others arrested included Ulu Selangor councillor Ooi Leng Heng, MPAJ councillor S Supiramany and a 72-year-old man.

A raid on DAP HQ

In a related development, the police yesterday raided the DAP headquarters in Petaling Jaya in search of documents believed to be related to the arrest of the 16.

The raid, which took place at 6.25pm, was carried out by a team of 11 police officers. They left at 7.30pm.

The police had brought along Ooi ( in orange lock-up uniform ), who is also DAP Youth's political education bureau director, in the raid and confiscated his computer monitor, keyboard, headphone, a number of CDs and a CPU (central processing unit).