PETALING JAYA (Aug 13, 2013): The government has to come up with a concrete solution to deal with disputes over the conversion of children as court rulings will not achieve anything in the long run, civil society groups said. They were commenting on reports that the Ipoh government, Perak Islamic Religious Department, and the Registrar…
PETALING JAYA (Aug 13, 2013): For a law that is supposed to be on its way out, the Sedition Act 1948 is still actively used, most recently on a Facebook user who allegedly insulted police, on top of a slew of other cases that saw internet users, politicians and NGO members being hauled up by…
PETALING JAYA (Aug 12, 2013): Handing preventive detention powers to a panel rather than a minister will not make any difference, legal activists said today in response to Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s legal reform suggestion quoted in a Malay daily on Sunday. Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights coordinator Edmund Bon…
PETALING JAYA: Police have recorded a statement from Suaram leader Cynthia Gabriel in an investigation under the Sedition Act over a fund-raising dinner it held two weeks ago. Cynthia came to the Petaling Jaya police headquarters at around 3pm yesterday with her lawyers – Latheefa Koya and Derek Fernandez – as well as a small…
PETALING JAYA: Lawyers of dog trainer Maznah ‘Chetz’ Yusof said Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has no authority to question her. “Jakim has no legal authority whatsoever to order Chetz to explain the video or attend before them,” said the lawyers. “It is shocking that despite our repeated protests, Jakim has jumped the gun by stating…
Lawyers for the Muslim dog handler have expressed shock at what Jakim had to say about the controversy, calling it “unlawful”. Yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom announced that Jakim has found that the YouTube clip of Maznah Mohd Yusof and her three dogs which went viral online was…
KUALA LUMPUR: The fourth suspect, Inspector S Hare Krishnan, was today charged for causing the death of N Dhamendran on May 21. He was charged under section 302 along with section 34 of the Penal Code. Deputy public prosecutor S Nithia informed the court that the prosecution was awaiting for the final post-mortem report which…
KUALA LUMPUR: Dog trainer Maznah Mohd Yusof is now in Segamat and will be remanded till tomorrow afternoon after having spent a night in police lockup here. Her counsel Latheefa Koya, in a text message this morning, said: “She has been brought to Segamat…just spoke to (Investigating Officer) Inspector Othman. “He confirms she (is) currently…
KUALA LUMPUR (July 31, 2013): Dog trainer Maznah Mohd Yusof was arrested today over a video clip of herself with dogs that has drawn public anger three years after it was uploaded. She was brought to Bukit Aman’s Commercial Crime Division to have her statement recorded as part of investigations over the video. However, her…
PETALING JAYA (July 31, 2013): Gerakan and Umno are at loggerheads over the issue of whether Guneswari Kelly should be charged with sedition for uploading on Facebook photographs of the “shower room canteen” at her daughter’s school. Selangor Umno liaison committee chairman Datuk Seri Noh Omar’s call for the whistleblower to be brought to book…
KUALA LUMPUR: A group of 33 activists who had gathered outside Parliament on June 24 were charged with illegal assembly at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court yesterday. They were accused of causing a public nuisance under Section 143 of the Penal Code, and 17 of them were also charged with rioting under Section 147 of…
PETALING JAYA, July 26 — Several Pakatan Rakyat (PR) MPs want Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013 to be held in Sri Lanka and sever ties with the country following revelations of alleged war crimes in a controversial documentary. At a screening of the film…
“The anguished voices of the dead, the dying and those left behind might yet be heard – and justice may yet catch up with Sri Lanka’s war criminals.” – Callum Macrae Carefully evidenced and powerfully measured, ‘No Fire Zone’ is a feature length film about the final awful months of the 26 year long Sri…
PETALING JAYA, July 23 — Efforts to resurrect preventive detention from the Emergency Ordinance (EO) to address a purported spike in crime are misplaced, according to lawyers who point out that the repealed law was introduced to combat communist insurgents rather than common criminals. Repealed in 2011 as part of the Najib administration’s raft of…
PETALING JAYA (July 22, 2013): Enforcement of standard operating procedures (SOP) for officers manning police lock-ups is the key to curb detainee deaths. Human rights groups said today that the current SOP is more than adequate and that the lack of enforcement is the actual issue. They were commenting on a statement made by Inspector-General…