Sosma applied 624 times in 2022

PARLIAMENT | There were 624 arrests under the Security Offices (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) in 2022.

Of that figure, 401 individuals have been convicted, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told the Dewan Rakyat.

Another 71 are charged and pending trial while another 12 are currently undergoing trial. There were 140 detainees who were freed.

Saifuddin said this in a written reply to Chow Yu Hui (Pakatan Harapan - Raub) who sought the number of people detained in 2022 under Sosma, the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (Poca), and the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2022 (Pota).

Chow also sought a breakdown by ethnicity of arrests under those laws in the same year.

Sosma is a controversial law which allows for up to 28 days of detention without a warrant.

The law also allowed for a police officer not below the rank of the superintendent to deny a detainee access to their next of kin or lawyer for up to 48 hours, if there were reasonable grounds to do so.

Detainee rights under the Criminal Procedure Code - including the right to immediate access to a lawyer - do not apply under Sosma.

Furthermore, the constitutional requirement for a magistrate's remand order to be sought if a detainee had to be detained for more than 24 hours does not apply if Sosma was invoked.

Meanwhile, Saifuddin said there were 132 arrests under Poca and one arrest under Pota last year.

He did not disclose how many were charged, convicted, or freed.

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