Lawyers M Manoharan and P Uthayakumar, who claimed that they were unlawfully detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA), lost their appeal in the Federal Court in Putrajaya today to reinstate their RM200 million civil suit against the government.

A five-member panel led by Court of Appeal President Md Raus Sharif upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal ruling that the duo cannot sue the government to challenge the grounds of their detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and seek damages by virtue of the “ouster clause” provision in section 8B of the ISA.

The provision forbids any challenge on the merits of the Agong’s or minister’s discretionary decision to detain a person under the ISA except on the aspect of procedural compliance requirement.

The panel, also comprising Chief Judge of Malaya Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin and Federal Court judges Ahmad Maarop, Hashim Yusoff and Zaleha Zahari, unanimously dismissed their appeal and ordered them to pay RM5,000 in legal costs to the government.

“We are not with you. The appeal is dismissed. We agree with the decision of the Court of Appeal,” said Justice Raus.

Manoharan and Uthayakumar filed the civil suit naming as defendants Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan, the Taiping detention centre superintendent and the government.

In the suit filed on Dec 9 last year, the duo each sought RM100 million in damages, claiming that their arrests, detention and restriction orders were unlawful, stating that they had not, at any time, done anything which was deemed to be a security threat to the country.

They alleged that they were arrested by the police on Dec 13, 2007, and were each served a two-year detention order at Kamunting. They were released on May 9, 2009, after serving 514 days in detention.

On March 24 2011, the Kuala Lumpur High Court threw out the duo’s civil suit after allowing the defendants’ application to strike it out on grounds of abuse of court process.

On Aug 28, 2011, the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeal against the High Court’s decision to strike out their suit.

    

The duo’s habeas corpus applications seeking their release from ISA detention were dismissed by the Federal Court in 2009 which ruled that their detentions were lawful.

Manoharan represented himself and also appreared for Uthayakumar, while senior federal counsel Najib Zakaria and Azizan Md Arshad represented the government.

- Bernama