Court order sought to stop police 'turning' lawyers into witnesses
Lawyer P Uthayakumar has filed a suit against 11 police officers alleging unlawful arrest and detention, and an abuse of police powers on behalf of the country's more than 10,000 lawyers, public interest, the families of police abuse victims and himself.
The suit was filed at the civil High Court registrar's office in Kuala Lumpur on Friday and is the second by the human rights lawyer over his arrest and detention by the police.
The first was filed against the police seeking a court declaration that his arrest and detention on Jan 16, 2003 and Jan 17, 2003 by two district police units were unconstitutional and done with malicious intent.
Uthayakumar, who is protem secretary-general of the yet-to-be-registered Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim), said one important aspect of the suit was the declaration sought to stop the police from taking statements from lawyers.
"This has been happening since 1998 after (jailed ex-deputy premier) Anwar Ibrahim and the reformasi period," he said when contacted today.
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