Buyung fuming with KL over deportation

Buyung fuming with KL over deportation

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution said on Wednesday he would sue the
Malaysian government after he was expelled from the country
immediately after arriving at the Kuala Lumpur International
Airport on Tuesday.

Buyung, who visited Kuala Lumpur to show support for jailed
opposition leader and former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim,
claimed his deportation was an abuse of basic human rights.

"I was arbitrarily refused entry to the country ... This is
further proof of Malaysia's authoritarian administration which
not only abuses the rights of its own people, but also the rights
of foreigners," he told a media conference.

He said upon his arrival at Kuala Lumpur at 10:30 p.m.,
immigration officers barred him from entry for security reasons
saying the ban came from "the highest authority in Malaysia".

Buyung said the reason for his expulsion was unclear.

He said he and colleague Paskah Irianto from the Jakarta
office of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association
(PBHI Jakarta) were forced to leave for Singapore on a flight at
11:30 p.m. before returning to Jakarta.

Buyung, co-founder of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute
(YLBHI) and member of the Geneva-based International Commission
of Jurists (ICJ), said he intended to deliver a petition to the
Malaysian Parliament seeking consent for Anwar to seek medical
treatment overseas.

Anwar is reportedly suffering spinal problems and needs
immediate surgery to save him from paralysis.

The petition is signed by 23 of Anwar's Indonesian friends and
supporters, including People's Consultative Assembly speaker
Amien Rais, Muslim scholar Imaduddin, Muhammadiyah chairman
Syafi'i Maarif, sociologist Ignas Kleden, cultural observers W.S.
Rendra and Ramadhan KH, and senior journalists Jacob Oetama,
Djaffar H. Assegaff and Aristides Katoppo.

Buyung was also invited by the opposition National Justice
Party -- led by Anwar's wife Azizah Ismail -- to address
Malaysian reform groups on the reform movement in Indonesia.

Buyung was one of the observers attending Anwar's trial in
1998 on corruption charges, which were held after Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad dismissed Anwar for opposing a financial policy.
Anwar was convicted and sentenced to 15-years jail.

The Associated Press reported that an airport immigration
official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Buyung was
barred from entering Malaysia indefinitely. The source declined
to elaborate.

Raja Petra Kamarudin, head of the Free Anwar Campaign, slammed
the deportation as a "very rough and uncultured way of treating a
foreign leader".