Malaysia plan crackdown on fresh street protests

Malaysia plan crackdown on fresh street protests

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian police warned on Wednesday
supporters of sacked finance minister Anwar Ibrahim that they
would crack down on any street protests even if it meant risking
harm to women and children.

"The police can only take so much. So don't force us to take
stern action when the situation is out of control," Mohamed
Yusuf, deputy director of internal security and public order for
the police, was quoted as saying.

"Don't think that by using the children and women as a shield,
the police will not take stern action," the national Bernama news
agency quoted him as saying.

"If the police have no choice...injuries including death could
occur to children exposed to tear gas," Mohamed said.

Police arrested 268 people last Saturday when protesters
clashed with security forces in the most violent demonstration
since Anwar was arrested on Sept. 20.

Anwar has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of sodomy and
corruption. His trial on four of the five corruption counts
starts on Monday.

Authorities have accused Anwar's supporters of bringing
children to the sporadic demonstrations that have taken place in
the center of the capital. Police have used water laced with
chemicals and tear gas to break up some of the protests.

Mohamed said police would resort to stern action if the crowds
turned violent "regardless of the place, even the mosque".

On Saturday, some 2,000 protesters gathered in support of
Anwar after evening Moslem prayers at a mosque in Kampung Baru, a
native Malay village in the heart of the capital.

They then started bonfires on the streets of Kampung Baru,
where the most serious riots in Malaysia's history started on May
13, 1969. Twelve protesters and two policemen were injured in
Saturday's clashes.

In another development, a senior Malaysian judge rejected on
Wednesday former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's application to be
freed ahead of his keenly awaited trial next week on corruption
charges.

In a scathing ruling, Anwar's petition for a writ of habeas
corpus ordering his release was thrown out by a High Court judge
who dismissed the sacked minister's arguments as "scandalous" and
"incredible."

The application for the writ -- a legal instrument against
arbitrary arrest -- was filed after Anwar was held under the
country's tough Internal Security Act (ISA) on Sept. 20.

The ISA detention order was lifted on Oct. 14 but Anwar
remains under custody on the strength of a remand order based on
five corruption and five sexual misconduct charges filed after
his detention.

Judge Abdul Wahab Patail said pursuing the writ application
now "is frivolous," adding it would be "wholly wrong" to contest
a remand order issued by another court of "coordinate
jurisdiction."

"On these plain and obvious grounds, there is no merit in
pursuing this application after the applicant had been released
(from ISA detention) to Sungai Buloh (prison) under court
remand," he said.

"It ought to be dismissed immediately and I cannot lend it any
appearance of propriety by referring it to another judge," he
added.

Lawyers for Anwar had asked the case be given to another judge
because Abdul Wahab is a brother of a prosecutor handling legal
cases filed against two men jailed for alleged sexual relations
with Anwar.

Anwar, fired by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in early
September after a long political feud, has dismissed 10
corruption and sexual allegations filed against him as
politically motivated.

The judge angrily reacted to a contention by Anwar's lawyers
that the remand order allowing his continued detention, as well
as his coming trial, were both "tainted."