Three final year students were suspended for a semester from Universiti Malaysia Sabah Labuan campus (Umskal) yesterday for demonstrating on campus in February.

According to human rights NGO Suaram, the trio were suspended after the UMS disciplinary committee found them guilty of contravening the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA).

“As a result, the three students are unable to sit for their final examinations next week. They are also final year students due to complete their studies this semester,” it said.

They were suspended with immediate effect for organising a demonstration in front of the Umskal administration building on Feb 21 against the university's decision to take back management of a shop on campus.

The student group had been operating the shop for six years.

The trio are among 16 students who underwent a disciplinary hearing on May 22, of which eight have been evicted from their respective residential colleges for the same offence.

Meanwhile, Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching condemned the students’ suspension and urged the university to revoke it immediately.

Citing a landmark court decision in April, she pointed out that the Court of Appeal had already ruled that criminalising spontaneous public assemblies is unconstitutional and told the university’s disciplinary committee to take heed.

“University and college students are also members of the public and are fully entitled to the freedoms that are afforded by the federal constitution.

“It is unconstitutional for UMS to penalise the students for organising or taking part in a peaceful assembly,” she said in a statement today.

In the April 25 decision, the Court of Appeal had ruled that a provision under the Peaceful Assembly Act that penalises rally organisers for not giving 10-day notice to the police is unconstitutional, because it contravenes the constitutional right to peaceful assemblies.

“The right to peaceful assembly is guaranteed under Article 10(1) (b) of the federal constitution and hence, it cannot be criminalised,” said one of the three judges, Hamid Sultan Abu Backer.

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