Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi must retract his remark that human rights defenders are the defenders of crime, DAP lawmaker Howard Lee said today.

"It is absolutely unacceptable for the second in command of an aspiring developed nation to be spilling such rhetoric of hate and stupidity.

"He must retract his statement, which will bring shame and disrepute to Malaysia," said the Pasir Pinji assemblyperson in a statement.

"Perhaps it is the deputy prime minister and his party's wish to join the club of despotic governments such as Angola, Philippines, Venezuela, Bahrain, Cambodia and others who demonise defenders of human rights," Lee (photo) added.

On Aug 15, the home minister slammed critics of the Prevention of Crime Act (Poca), calling them supporters of criminals.

Zahid said these critics often masqueraded as human rights defenders.

Principle of natural justice 

Meanwhile, The Society for the Promotion of Human Rights (Proham) said they are appalled by Zahid's position.

Citing Article 10 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the group said it is "a principle of natural justice that everyone has the right to a trial and to be heard in court".

"Furthermore the presumption of innocence until proven guilty is an important element of our criminal justice system," said Proham chairperson Kuthubul Zaman and secretary-general Ivy Josiah in a statement.

"For the home minister to ignore this basic right and malign human rights defenders and presumably lawyers who take up cases to defend detainees is to willfully dismiss Article 11 of the UDHR.

"If the genuine concern is to eliminate serious crimes including organised crime, Proham believes we have a battery of existing laws to do just that," they said.

The human rights group urged the government to relook at the report produced by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into police conduct, which came up with 26 recommendations to improve police investigations without having to resort to detention without trial.

"We strongly oppose detention without trial. In 2014, Poca was amended and expanded to reintroduce detention without trial and the recent amendments further sliced off the rights of a detainee," they said.

"The detainee is now deprived of a fundamental right to be heard, nor have a lawyer make representations before the inquiry officer or the POCB (Prevention of Crime Board)."

Zahid had argued that Poca was not as bad as the defunct Internal Security Act as the power of the home minister was limited under Poca.