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."