The Malaysian Bar - 36 to be released under the Emergency Ordinance

Home

News

Legal/General News

36 to be released under the Emergency Ordinance

Friday, 25 November 2011 09:11am

©The Star (Used by permission)
by JOSEPH SIPALAN

KUALA LUMPUR: Thirty-six people detained under the Emergency Ordinance will be released over the next few days following the lifting of three emergency declarations by Parliament.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said this proved the Government was serious about reforms.

He said this was part of the ongoing process to free those who had been detained under laws which had been repealed.

This is on top of 125 people whose banishment had been nullified and 243 unserved warrants for restricted residence, after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced the abolition of the Banishment Act 1959 and the Restricted Residence Act 1993 during his Malaysia Day address on Sept 15.

Yesterday, Parliament unanimously passed a motion, tabled by Najib, to lift three emergency declarations that have been in place for more than 30 years.

The three declarations were the 1966 Sarawak emergency to deal with political upheaval in the state, 1969 emergency following the May 13 riots, and the 1977 Kelantan emergency which also dealt with political disorder.

Hishammuddin defended two new laws proposed to replace the Internal Security Act (ISA), slamming the opposition for attacking the laws before they were even tabled in Parliament.

He said the plan to continue with detention without trial only applied to one of the new laws, which dealt exclusively with terrorists.

The proposed laws, which are expected to be tabled in the next Parliamentary meeting in March, will also look into allowing judicial reviews and specific detention periods of those detained under the new laws.

“I believe the two new Acts are up to mark. There is no basis to say it’s the same (as the ISA),” Hishammuddin said.

Meanwhile, the minister said he could not confirm nor deny claims that the 13 people detained in Tawau last week had planned to assassinate an elected representative.

He said investigations were still ongoing, but confirmed that those detained were considered terrorists.

The Star reported earlier that the 13 suspected Darul Islam terrorists were part of a group believed to have plotted to assassinate a local assemblyman.

Counter-terrorism sources said they were also planning to hold a police officer hostage to secure the release of their comrades.

Set as favourite

Email This