PROPERTY
CARS
JOBS
Lawyers for the 36-year-old Sejahratul Dursina @ Chomel Mohammad argued that she, just like any citizen, must have complete access to her lawyers as provided by the Federal Constitution.
"For Sejahratul, the administration of justice is that she has an equal and full opportunity to avail herself of her constitutional rights and to lay her case fully, freely and fairly before this court," counsel Edmund Bon told Shah Alam High Court judge Zaleha Zahari.
The family of Sejahratul, the only woman detained under the ISA for alleged links to KMM, filed the habeas corpus application seeking the IT company director's immediate release.
Habeas corpus writ is a judicial mandate to the authorities ordering that a detained person be brought to court in order to determine whether the person's detention is lawful.
Sejahratul was arrested by the police with 14 other KMM suspects over a two-day operation in April , to bring the number of people detained over their links with KMM to 62 since last year.
The government, the home minister and Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai were named as respondents in the application.
Sejahratul is the wife of another ISA detainee Yazid Sufaat, who was arrested last December over his alleged involvement in a secret cell in the KMM with ties to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network which was blamed for the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.
Detention in bad faith
In the court proceedings today, Bon also lamented that the police's denial of Sejahratul's right to legal counsel did not have any valid reasons and were therefore done in bad faith.
"In this instance, legal access was requested 16 days after her arrest. This was entirely reasonable. The onus is on the respondents to justify the denial of access. It must be taken that there are no good or valid reasons of such a denial has been taken in bad faith.
"There must be clear reasons and evidence to show the court why and how access to counsels would impede investigations," Bon said.
The police have claimed that access to legal counsel cannot be given yet as investigations were ongoing.
"The inability to take instructions from her has had and will significantly handicap us our duties at the hearing proper on her behalf.
"We shall not be able to challenge her detention properly," Bon added.
The mother of four is currently undergoing her 48th day under the ISA and was allowed to see her family nine days after she was arrested.
Sejahratul is also represented by Malik Imtiaz, R Sivarasa, Ranjit Singh, KY Ho and Saiful Izham.
The government is represented by Senior Federal Counsels Nordin Hassan and Kamaludin Mohd Said.
The hearing continues on Friday.