Kuala Lumpur police have insisted that they were acting within the law in stopping a campaign to protest wrongful use of the Internal Security Act, at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) last night.

Acting police chief Dell Akbar Khan claimed that it was the "right and prerogative" of police to do so.

The meeting was called to launch the ISA Mala Fide campaign initiated by the Abolish ISA Movement (AIM), set up in April last year.

In the slightly tense incident, more than 100 police officers and around 30 members of the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) members sealed off the venue, leading to a standoff with some 300 campaigners. About 10 people sustained minor injuries in the fracas.

The campaign was planned to call for the release of all reformasi activities detained under the ISA, following the Federal Court ruling on Sept 6 that the detention of five of them for the initial 60-day period of interrogation was unlawful.

One of the five, Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin, was released before the expiry of the initial detention. Another, Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor, was convicted of an offence under the Official Secrets Act in August and is serving a two-year jail term in Kajang Prison.

Crowd-control worries

Dell, who arrived about an hour after the crowd had dispersed, explained to reporters that police had to stop the event because the organisers had called on "all Malaysians" to participate. He said police were worried that the situation would get out of control.

"Do you know they sent out flyers? Do you know they put [this information] on the Internet [website], calling for all rakyat Malaysia to attend?" he claimed.

However, he refused to respond when reporters questioned him on the details of the website (so that they could check up on it).

"Do you know what is the capacity of the SCAH (building)? When AIM called all Malaysians to attend, we cannot control ... the place is [meant] only for members," Dell said.

He was responding to questions linked to the campaigners' right to organise the activity within their own building, which are private premises.

SCAH's youth section and Civil Rights Committee are both members of AIM, which comprises 83 organisations. These include political parties, non-governmental organisations and unions.

Angry response

Asked if the police had trespassed by entering the private building without a warrant, Dell became angry.

"What do you know about trespassing? Do you know what is preventive detention?" he asked in what appeared to be an intimidating manner.

"We have the right, this is our prerogative," he reiterated before walking away.

The police have based their action on section 27 of the Police Act, which empowers them to stop activities that take place in a private location if they deem the activities to be prejudicial to national security interests.

AIM vice-chairperson Zahir Hassan said he had received a call from the Dang Wang police early yesterday afternoon demanding that the meeting be cancelled as the organisers had neither applied for a permit, nor informed police of the event beforehand.

A letter was subsequently handed to the KL police chief, informing him of the meeting, but it was rejected on the grounds that it did not fulfill the 14-day notice period.

Dell, however, told reporters last night that the committee members should have met him over the matter as he had been attending a meeting and was not aware the letter had been submitted.