KUALA LUMPUR: Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) has welcomed the decision by the Kuala Lumpur High Court to strike down Section 13 of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) which provides for no discretion in the granting of bail by the court as being unconstitutional.
It’s executive director, Sevan Doraisamy, said the acknowledgement by the High Court that Section 13 of Sosma runs contrary to the doctrine of separation of power between the executive, the judiciary and the legislature marks a departure from a long trend where the judiciary refused to acknowledge the deprivation of judicial power and oversight over the executive in situations where a person is detained without trial.
Earlier, today, the High Court allowed Gadek assemblyman G. Saminathan to apply for bail over a probe into his alleged involvement with terror group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
This comes after Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali ruled that Section 13 of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) was ultra vires to Articles 8 and 121 of the Federal Constitution.
Section 13 of Sosma states that the court was prohibited from considering the granting of bail to a person charged for an offence under Chapter 6A of the Penal Code.
“The decision by the High Court of Kuala Lumpur is a brave step forward for the judiciary and marks a turning point not only for the 12 individuals detained under Sosma, but for countless others who were unjustly detained without trial under Sosma, the Prevention of Crime Act 1959, Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015 and the Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measures) Act 1985,” Sevan said in a statement today.
He said the decision also echoed the long years of advocacy by civil societies and lawyers who had consistently fought against detention without trial since the days of the Internal Security Act 1960.
“The decision vindicates the argument against detention without trial and marks a transition point for Malaysia to depart from the old paradigm of detention without trial to a criminal justice system where fundamental liberties are respected”.
He added that the ball was now in the court of the Attorney-General, the Royal Malaysian Police and the Ministry of Home Affairs to acknowledge that the denial of a fair trial is unconstitutional and the matter of bail and remand must lie with the judiciary as a check against abuse by the executive branch of the government.
Besides Saminathan, the others are Seremban Jaya assemblyman P. Gunasekaran, 60; taxi driver V. Balamurugan, 37; postman, S. Teeran, 38; scrap metal trader A. Kalaimughilan, 28; a chief executive officer of a corporation, S. Chandru, 38; technician S. Arivainthan, 27; storekeeper S.Thanagaraj, 26; security guard M. Pumugan, 29; a national secondary school teacher in Telok Panglima Garang, Selangor, Sundram Renggan @ Rengasamy, 52; DAP member V. Suresh Kumar, 43, and businessman B. Subramaniam, 57.
