5 Malaysia's activists win first round of legal battle

5 Malaysia's activists win first round of legal battle

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Five opposition activists won the first
round of a legal battle against their detention without trial on
Monday when Malaysia's top court agreed to admit new evidence in
their appeal hearing.

A five-member panel at the Federal Court, led by Chief Justice
Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, reached a unanimous decision to accept
affidavits made by the detainees as court evidence.

"We are unanimous that both the applications to adduce further
evidence be allowed," the chief justice told the court after
hearing arguments from both sides.

He postponed the hearing to a date yet to be fixed after
government lawyers sought time to file affidavits to counter the
new evidence.

The five detainees, who are supporters of jailed ex-deputy
premier Anwar Ibrahim, are appealing against a high court ruling
in April rejecting their "habeas corpus" applications to be
freed.

They were among 10 Anwar supporters detained under the
Internal Security Act (ISA) in April.

Four of them, along with two others, were transferred from
police custody to a detention camp in June for up to two years
under the ISA which allows indefinite detention without trial.
One has since been freed.

The Federal Court on Monday agreed to accept 12 new affidavits
containing interviews with the ISA detainees which were
previously unavailable since they were not allowed access to
lawyers while in police custody.

The affidavits related to the conditions of their detention
and their interrogation by police, lawyers said.

Lead counsel Sulaiman Abdullah earlier told the Federal Court
that the new affidavits were relevant to show evidence of "total
misuse of the security apparatus."

For example, Sulaiman said a police officer stood up and
pointed his hand at one of the detainees, Hishamuddin Rais,
during interrogation as if he was holding a gun.

He said Hishamuddin, in his affidavit, quoted the police as
saying: "If Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) or the Alternative Front
wins, we'll all take to the streets with weapons. We are trained
and we have experience."

PAS is the dominant party in the opposition Alternative Front
coalition, which also includes the National Justice Party led by
Anwar's wife and two other parties.

Sulaiman said the police interrogation was aimed at persuading
the detainees to join the ruling party and stop supporting Anwar.