Human rights activists today failed in their bid to stop authorities from deporting journalist Hamza Kashgari, who face a likely death sentence over a Twitter post. 

Earlier today, lawyers had scrambled to the Subang Airport in hope of serving the authorities an interim court order to stop the deportation. 

Upon learning that the journalist was not at the airport, the activists proceeded to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) but it was too late. 

According to a tweet by lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, Hamza was deported at 10am this morning on a Saudi plane accompanied by the deputy inspector-general of police.

In a later tweet, Fadiah said the KLIA immigration officer had told her that Hamza was deported without his details recorded.

Earlier, AFP had quoted anonymous government sources stating that Hamza has already been deported and is in the custody of Saudi officials.

Malaysian authorities had detained Hamza at the request of Saudi Arabia's government for allegedly insulting Islam in a Twitter posting.

He is believed to have fled to Malaysia and was en route to New Zealand to seek political asylum. 

As outrage poured over the offending Twitter post in Saudi Arabia, Hamza, 23, deleted the message. 

However, this was not enough as the country's top clerics declared him an apostate while a growing pressure online for his execution.

Blasphemy is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.

Human rights activists have criticised the Malaysian government for failing to protect Hamza and deporting him to a country where his life is at risk.

Unlawful, unconstitutional and cruel

Keadilan vice president N Surendran said in a statement today he condemned in the strongest terms the home minister and inspector general of police for deporting Hamza, as it was an unlawful, unconstitutional and cruel act.

"The deportation was carried out in an unholy haste in order to defeat the legal process in Malaysia," he said, adding that a Malaysian High Court had unusually convened on a Sunday to issue the interim order barring deportation.

"The issuance of the order meant that the High Court judge had found basis in Hamza's complaint that he was being illegally held by Malaysian authorities and that his deportation would be unlawful."

He said there is no extradition treaty between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia and the offence he is accused of is not a capital offence in Malaysia.

"The deportation is thus in breach of our legal norms and constitutional principles. It is also in breach of international law and human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

Surendran added that the Home Ministry and police had also withheld crucial information as to Hamza's whereabouts and deportation plans were deliberately and unlawfully withheld from the lawyers.

Trading a life for diplomacy 

The Malaysian Bar also condemned the deportation, calling it a “contravention of the principle of non-refoulement”, that is, a state may not oblige a person to return to a territory where he may be exposed to persecution.

“This principle has become a rule of international customary law and is expressed in Article 33 paragraph 1 of the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, which provides that no country shall expel or return a person to a territory ‘where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’," said Lim Chee Wee, president of the Bar.

“Equally deplorable is the government’s refusal to allow access by lawyers to the blogger, and its disregard of the court order obtained on an urgent basis today to prevent the deportation.”

 Lim, in an email to Malaysiakini this evening said the government and the officers involved have to be accountable for contravening the basic human right of access to legal representation, as was the case for Hamza.

“It would appear that the Malaysian government has sacrificed Hamza Kashgari's liberty and life for the sake of diplomatic expediency. This must never be repeated,” he added.