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.