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.