Malaysian police arrest another opposition leader
Malaysian police arrest another opposition leader
KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Police arrested a prominent Malaysian opposition leader on Tuesday after he delivered a fiery speech at a rally, bringing to nine the number of anti-government activists detained in the last two weeks under tough security laws.
About eight plainclothes officers seized Lokman Noor Adam, a youth leader in the National Justice Party, or Keadilan, as he was leaving the site of the rally just after midnight on Tuesday in Shah Alam city, 30 kilometers south of Kuala Lumpur, witnesses said.
Police said in a statement that Lokman was detained under the Internal Security Act, the national news agency, Bernama reported.
The act was introduced in the early 1960s to stem a communist insurgency and allows authorities to detain people indefinitely without trial.
"This is a clearly growing crackdown on our leaders," Anuar Tahir, Keadilan's secretary-general, told The Associated Press. "We don't know where they have been taken, we have no contact with them. The authorities want to cripple us."
Seven activists, six of them Keadilan officials, were arrested April 10-11, and another party leader was detained at his home last Friday.
At the time of the first arrests, police said the activists belonged to a group that planned in 1998 to use explosives in street protests to topple Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government.
Mahathir has defended the arrests, saying that enforcement of security laws "protects the freedom of the people."
On Tuesday, about 40 opposition lawmakers, relatives of the detainees and supporters gathered outside federal police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to demand a meeting with national police chief Norian Mai over the arrests.
A small group of relatives was allowed into the building to meet with senior officers, although Norian was not present.
"I am shocked," said Noorfarahin Ahmat, Lokman's wife, of his arrest. "This is my son's first birthday. I wish Lokman was here to celebrate it."
The family of another detainee, Keadilan youth wing chief Ezam Mohamad Noor, brought a cake to the police station to mark his 34th birthday, and the protesters sang "Happy Birthday."
Ezam's wife, Bahirah Tajul Ariff, said after the meeting that authorities refused to reveal where the detainees are being held.
"This has caused so much distress to us," she told reporters. "We are in great fear for our loved ones and cannot help coming to the conclusion that the police are hiding something."
The relatives then went to the Human Rights Commission office, where they filed a complaint against the latest arrest.
Commissioner Anuar Zainal Abidin said that "arrests under the ISA are certainly an abuse of human rights."
Most of those arrested, including Lokman, were organizers of a rally to mark the second anniversary of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's conviction on corruption charges on April 14, 1999.
Anti-government gatherings, once rare in Malaysia, have become regular occurrences since Mahathir fired Anwar from the Cabinet in September 1998.
Anwar, who is serving prison sentences totaling 15 years for corruption and sodomy, is seen as a symbol for the opposition's battle for democratic reforms.
Lawyers for five of the activists arrested this month have asked Malaysia's High Court to order their release, insisting the group were detained for political reasons, not because they posed a security threat.
Judge Augustine Paul is scheduled to deliver his ruling on Wednesday.
Lawyer Zainur Zakaria said that hearings aimed at securing the release of two other activists began in a Shah Alam court on Tuesday.