Yellow tees: 11 councillors to be charged tomorrow
The authorities have deferred charging at least 17 people till tomorrow for Bersih 2.0-related activities.
The authorities have deferred charging at least 17 people till tomorrow for Bersih 2.0-related activities.
Eleven Kajang councillors were initially summoned to the Kajang Magistrate's Court this afternoon.
Lim Lip Eng (left) , who is to represent some of them, had earlier said they are likely to be charged under Section 47 of the Societies Act for 'publishing propaganda of an unlawful society'.
Another six people, all employees of the NGO Empower, are scheduled to be charged tomorrow.
Apart from a charge under Section 47 of the Societies Act, they will face another under Section 48 of the same Act for acting on behalf of an unlawful society.
The Kajang councillors arrived in court at 2.50pm, but it took until 4pm for the police to begin registering the case.
Gobind Singh Deo, who is representing a few of the councillors, said the police and prosecution then agreed to charge them tomorrow at 11am.
This is because the filing of documents will take time, while there will also be problems for the court to process bail because of the late hour.
As banks close at 4pm, those charged may not be able to post bail and will have to spend time in the lock-up.
Councillor ST Chandra Mohan said they had received a call from the police requiring their presence at 3pm to be arrested and charged.
"We were told we will be charged under Section 47 of the Societies Act. That is why we are here," he said.
The others are Tan Boon Wah, Razaly Hassan, Cheong Siow Fong, Ng Tian Chan, Chan Juan Hon, Lee Kim Hing, Lee Learn Eng, Ong Sang Peng, Mohd Mohyiddin Mohd Mesbah and Zulkifli Ali Ariffin.
The 11 comprise five DAP representatives, four from PKR, and one each from PAS and a NGO.
A total of 23 Kajang councillors had been summoned to give their statements to the police last week after wearing Bersih 2.0 T-shirts to a full council meeting.
Councillors in seven Selangor local councils had similarly worn Bersih 2.0 apparel to their full board meetings in support of the rally for electoral reforms.
Aside from Kajang, the other councils were Subang Jaya, Ampang, Klang, Petaling Jaya, Selayang and Shah Alam.
Charges remain unclear
Lawyer Honey Tan, representing the Empower staff, could only confirm that her clients will be charged tomorrow.
Tan
(right)
said they are
still in the dark over the specifics of the charges and in which court they will be charged.
“The six have done nothing wrong. We will fight until the case is finished, and are confident of acquittal.
“Article 10 of the federal constitution says that the people have freedom of speech, (can) assembly peacefully without arms, and (have the) right to form (an) association.
“This is an attempt to threaten and harass the six of them, (and) is clearly a violation of Article 10.”
She was speaking to journalists after accompanying seven of Empower staff who had been summoned to give their statements at the Petaling Jaya police station earlier today.
The police had raided the Empower office, which doubled as the Bersih 2.0 secretariat, in Section 4, Petaling Jaya last Wednesday as part of its crackdown on preparations for Saturday's rally.
The authorities seized Bersih 2.0 leaflets and T-shirts, and detained seven Empower staff for questioning.
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