The government, together with police, have filed a notice of appeal over the Kuala Lumpur High Court's decision to dismiss their claim of RM122,000 against Bersih 2.0 for the mammoth rally three years ago.

 

Former Bersih 2.0 co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan today confirmed receiving the notice of appeal over the court's decision not to grant the government damages.

 

"They are also appealing against the RM21,000 in damages awarded to former fellow steering committee member Wong Chin Huat," she told Malaysiakini .

 

The appeal's filing was also confirmed by Wong's lawyer Ang Hean Leng. The notice comes six days after the KL High Court's decision.

The government had orginally filed a claim against the Bersih 2.0 steering committee members ( above ) seeking costs for alleged damage totalling RM122,000 for repairing police vehicles destroyed during the rally plus other costs, interests and relief deemed fit by the court.

However, KL High Court judge John Louis O' Hara had on Jan 30 dismissed the government's claim on the grounds that the organiser was not 'vicariously liable' as the damages to the police vehicles took place after Ambiga asked the huge crowd to disperse.

Undecided on cross-appeal

“It is clear to this court that the damages only happened after Ambiga had called off the rally.

“Moreover, it was not shown, to the satisfaction of the court that the damages that occurred were actually caused by the legitimate participants (the people in the rally) or by independent agents,” O Hara decided.

The RM21,000 in damages that the court awarded to Wong was for his unlawful arrest and detention and also the assault he had suffered. Besides this, the court also ordered the government to pay RM30,000 in costs to Wong.

Ambiga, meanwhile said the 14 of them have not decided on whether to cross-appeal the court's decision in declaring the Section 6 (2) (g) of the Peaceful Assembly Act as constitutional.

That provision deals with the responsibility of organisers in ensuring a public assembly will not endanger health of participants or cause damage to property or the environment.

Justice O' Hara had in his decision said the impugned section does not contravene Article 5(1), Article 8(1) and Article 10(1) of the Federal Constitution, and, as such, the responsibility of the rally organisers stands.

“The court finds PAA 2012 as constitutional,” he had ruled. The former steering committee members have 30 days from Jan 30 to file their cross-appeal.

Biggest public assembly

The historic Bersih 3 rally calling for clean and fair elections on April 28, 2012, is the biggest public assembly ever in Malaysia to date.

It attracted at least 150,000 people but was marred by state violence allegedly carried out by police personnel against journalists who were covering the event.

The Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) in its report following an inquiry in 2013 had said police had taken 'unreasonable measures' in trying to control the crowd during the rally.

The 80-page Suhakam report also said the police acted in 'bad faith' when handling the rally.