PKR Sarawak assemblyperson for Padungan Dominique Ng has demanded that the police observe laws regulating detention of individuals.

No individual may be detained for more than 24 hours unless the police obtain a magistrate’s order, he said in a statement today. If they fail to do so, they have to release the detainee immediately.

dominique ng and sarawak election Ng (right) was referring to an incident where two villagers were detained on June 28, while defending their native customary rights over their land in Simunjan against encroachment by a plantation company.

The landowners had set up a road blockade to prevent company officials and workers from accessing the site.

The two villagers were in police custody for 24 hours without any application being made for a magistrate’s order. This rendered their detention unlawful beyond Sunday, said Ng.

He said he had asked Simunjan acting OCPD Abang Ahmad Abang Sumi and the investigating officer to release the villagers.

ncr sarawak land dispute blockade in simunjan 020708 01 Ahmad told him that the police had applied to the magistrate for extension of detention by four days, but were given only two days.

Expressing shock that such authorisation was obtained over the telephone, Ng, a lawyer by training, intervened on behalf of the villagers on Monday.

He insisted that they be taken before a magistrate in compliance with Article 5 Clause 4 of the Federal Constitution.

The two were produced before a magistrate in the late afternoon and were released at 4.30pm after a short hearing.

“The police are not above the law and must respect the constitution and the role of the judiciary,” added Ng.