Showing posts with label HINDRAF. Show all posts

TAIPING: Family members and friends of Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees dispersed peacefully after staging a candlelight vigil outside the Kamunting detention camp near here.

Police allowed the large group to remain for 15 minutes under the watch of Federal Reserve Unit police personnel during the gathering organised by the Abolish ISA Movement at 8.30pm yesterday.

Perak senior executive councillor Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham was present to monitor the situation.

Ngeh, who is also state DAP chairman, said the state government’s stand was that every person had a universal right to a fair trial in a court of law, as opposed to unlawful detention.

NIBONG TEBAL: Police have detained two local leaders of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) here yesterday for allegedly sending SMS messages threatening to kill another member of the organisation.

Sources said the two, in their mid 20s, were picked up from their homes in Taman Cenderawasih here about 2am after their victim, in his early 40s, lodged a police report.
It is learnt he received a total of 16 short messages threatening to kill him if he failed to slow down his activities.

The messages were sent using two cell phones.

The sources said there was a misunderstanding between the three over a fundraising dinner about two weeks ago.

Hindraf national co-ordinator R.S. Thanenthiran said he was not aware of the problem and would seek an explanation from those involved.

PUTRAJAYA, WED:

The Federal Court today dismissed the appeal of the five Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders who are being held under the Internal Security Act.

In upholding the decision of the Judicial Commissioner, the three-man bench - Datuk Allaudin Mohd Sheriff, Datuk Ariffin Zakaria and Datuk Hashim Yusof - ruled that the decision to detain the five under the ISA was legal.

The ruling was made after reading the affidavits of the respondents, including that of the Prime Minister’s, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was then the Internal Security Minister.

The Hindraf five - lawyers M. Manoharan, 46, (who is also the Kota Alam Shah assemblyman), P. Uthayakumar, 46, V. Ganabatirau, 34, R. Kengadharan, 40, and Hindraf coordinator T. Vasantha Kumar - were represented by Karpal Singh who said that he would file for a review of the ruling on Monday.

The respondents were represented by Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.

Family members and relatives of the five were present at the Federal Court. Several were seen sobbing after the decision.

(AFP) - Malaysia's ethnic Indian activists Sunday warned the government to provide medical aid to one of its leaders and free those detained under tough internal security laws or face more street rallies.

More than 50 protestors from Indian rights group Hindraf blocked the entrance to a shopping mall at the iconic Petronas twin towers in downtown Kuala Lumpur to demand medical attention for P. Uthayakumar, who is diabetic.

Uthayakumar and four other members of the rights group Hindraf have been detained under the tough Internal Security Act (ISA) since December after holding an anti-discrimination rally.

"This gathering is to send a clear message to the government," Hindraf coordinator S. Jayathas told reporters.
"If (the government) deny (treatment to Uthayakumar and do not release the ISA detainees), then we will have a bigger gathering, that is definite," he said.

Hindraf leaders angered the government last November with a mass rally alleging discrimination in Malaysia, which is dominated by Muslim Malays.

Mounting anger within the Indian community was said to have been a factor in the government's drubbing in March 8 polls where it lost its two-thirds majority in parliament.

Opposition lawmaker Sivarasa Rasiah, who turned up to support the event, said the government should release ISA detainees unless they had proof to charge them in open court.
"As far as I am concerned, one day under ISA detention is too long, one ISA detainee is too many," he added.

Close to 300 policemen were deployed outside the busy shopping mall to control the protestors, with watercannon vans and riot police waiting nearby.
Hindraf supporters carried posters showing a weak-looking Uthayakumar behind bars as the crowd yelled, "Abolish the ISA" and "Freedom."
Similar protests were held in six other locations through the country, organisers said.

Rights groups say 70 people, mainly alleged Islamic militants, are being held under the ISA.
Parts of the ISA date back to the British colonial era, when it was used against communist insurgents. It provides for two-year detention periods that can be renewed indefinitely.