Int'l lawyers join call for abolition of ISA
Int'l lawyers join call for abolition of ISA
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): International human rights lawyers on Tuesday deplored Malaysia's harsh Internal Security Act (ISA) which has been used against detained deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim and other individuals.
"Anything that deprives an individual of basic rights is a concern for us. The ISA is a threat to those basic rights," Sayyad Mohyeddeen, director for the Justice International Commission on Human Rights (JICHR) said at a news briefing.
The JICHR, an international organization of human rights lawyers headed by Queen's Counsel John Platts-Mills, said they fully supported a call made by Malaysian colleagues in the 7,800- strong Malaysian Bar Council to abolish the ISA.
Platts-Mills, a noted barrister of recent decades, said the group would raise the recommendations of the Malaysian Bar Council to the British Bar Council.
The Malaysian Bar Council held a special meeting at the weekend which called for the release or charging of all persons detained under the ISA, which provides for indefinite detention usually without trial.
The arrest on Monday of the head of a Moslem intellectual group under the ISA has brought to 18 the number of people detained under that law since Anwar was arrested on Sept. 20.
Anwar and four others are still being held under the ISA. The JICHR said they hoped to return before Nov. 2 in time to observe Anwar's trial for four corruption charges.
"I have never known a case where there is so much interest around overseas, " Platts-Mills said.
The two lawyers said that their group had no wish to obstruct proceedings in Anwar's case. The JICHR team met Anwar's family on Saturday.
"We have also been instructed by the family to assist or help our fellow professionals in the observance of rule of law and securing justice which also involves their own rights of practice without harassment or hindrance," Mohyeddeen told AFP Monday.
Anwar's lawyers filed an appeal on Tuesday challenging a court's refusal of bail, as Malaysia told foreign nations not to interfere with Anwar's forthcoming trial.
No date has been fixed for hearing the appeal. A High Court judge had refused bail when Anwar, the former deputy prime minister, was arraigned Oct. 5 on 10 counts of corruption and illegal homosexual acts. Anwar pleaded innocent to all charges.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi described as "unacceptable" what he called attempts by foreign nations to interfere in Anwar's trial, which has been set for Nov. 2, newspapers said.
"This is one example of interference we cannot accept," Abdullah said in comments to local reporters Monday evening.
He was referring to a report that a man claiming to be a U.S. senator had made a phone call last week to Justice Augustine Paul, the High Court judge conducting Anwar's trial, the newspaper New Straits Times said.
The caller told the judge that justice must be seen to be done, the daily said, and the judge reported the call to police. Such a call is "tantamount to interference as though we do not understand the law and are unable to enforce the law well," Abdullah said.
No other details were available about the reported phone call.
Malaysia has repeated assurances that Anwar, who challenged Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's 17-year reign, will be given a fair trial.