Human rights watchdog eyes another detention-without-trial law
The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) may be embarking on an inquiry into detentions under the Emergency Ordinance, much like its ongoing inquiry into detentions under the Internal Security Act.
Commissioner Prof Hamdan Adnan said he will bring up the proposal before a meeting on Aug 26.
"There have also been too many people who have been put under the Emergency Ordinance," Hamdan told malaysiakini yesterday.
He added that the detainees should be tried instead since most are suspects of criminal activities and hence can be prosecuted under normal laws.
The Emergency Ordinance (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) 1969 was enacted to quell disturbances and chaos after the breakout of the May 13 racial riots in 1969.
Often seen as a sister act to the ISA, the EO allows the police to arrest and detain up to a period of 60 days any person who may be suspected of acting prejudicially to public order or whose detention is necessary for the "suppression of violence, or the prevention of crimes involving violence".
Suhakam has maintained that any form of detention without trial is a violation of human rights.
Arbitrary arrest
A recent EO case was S Tharma Rajen, 20, who was arrested on suspicion of gangsterism but died under police detention at the Putrajaya hospital on June 18.
Ten others were placed under the EO earlier this month after they were acquitted by the Ipoh High Court in Perak of the murder of five people including a retired police assistant superintendent, at an estate near Gopeng on Oct 7, 1999.
The Bar Council in a statement last Tuesday criticised the police for their act of rearresting the men when they had been released by the court, stating that it was tantamount to an attempt to circumvent the conclusion of due legal process and a violation of human rights.
"The fact that no particulars were given as to the cause for the second arrest and
detention for a period of up to 60 days until the home minister determines their freedom, gives rise to further concern as the power to arrest and detain seems to have been exercised in an arbitrary fashion," council chairperson Mah Weng Kai said.
Commissioners Zainah Anwar and Asiah Abu Samah on Saturday visited the Simpang Renggam Detention Centre in Johor where EO detainees are usually held
Unfair detention
When contacted, Zainah said they met with prison officials and detainees and spent two to three hours at the centre.
"The facilities were spotlessly clean and that was quite surprising, but I don't know whether it was generally so or if it was because of our visit," she said.
Some detainees claimed that they have been put under the EO unfairly, "[raising] the question why preventive detention laws were used when they (suspects) can be charged under the Penal Code and then brought to the courts," Zainah said.
She also said that most of the detainees were either placed under the EO or another preventive detention law, the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA), approximately 400 and 1,000 respectively.
According to human rights organisation Suaram, detentions under the DDA as of June 2000 number 836 while those under the EO as of August 2000 number 418.
1 DAY TO GO! Tomorrow, Aug 15, malaysiakini 's news section will no longer be free. Don't miss out on the country's only independent news source. Subscribe NOW! Click here .
For more news and views that matter, subscribe and support independent media for only RM0.36 sen a day:
Subscribe now