‘PM had rightly issued order, complied with procedural requirements’

PUTRAJAYA: The five Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders will continue to remain behind bars at the Kamunting detention centre in Taiping, Perak.

This follows the Federal Court ruling yesterday that their detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) is lawful.

A three-man panel led by Chief Judge of Malaya, Datuk Alauddin Mohd Sheriff ruled that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in his capacity as the Internal Security Minister then, had rightly issued the two-year detention order and complied with the procedural requirements under the Act.

The Hindraf leaders are lawyers M Manoharan, 46, who is also the MP for Kota Alam Shah, P Uthayakumar, 46, V Ganabatirau, 40, R Kenghadharan, 40, and former bank officer K Vasantha Kumar, 36.

The five men were detained last Dec 13 for their involvement in organising a street protest in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 25, and for making inflammatory remarks against the government.

They appealed to the Federal Court after they failed to secure an order from the High Court for their release from what they claimed as unlawful detention.

In unanimously upholding the High Court’s refusal to allow the five’s habeas corpus application, Alauddin said it (High Court) had carefully evaluated the respondents’ affidavits, including the affidavit by the prime minister when it ruled that their detention was valid and in accordance with the law.

The five named the internal security minister and the Kamunting detention centre commandant as respondents.

“The judicial commissioner, as appears in his judgment, has gone through the affidavits of the respondents, paragraph by paragraph,” said Alauddin.

The internal security minister, in his affidavit-in-reply, claimed that the Hindraf leaders were attempting to gain international recognition for their struggle by getting support from a terrorist organisation, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Alauddin, in pronouncing the oral judgment, said Judicial Commissioner Zainal Azman Ab Aziz had also held that the internal security minister’s action to issue the detention order on the five was not made in a mechanical manner or without basis, but was based on investigation which was carried out.

“There is no misdirection of law by the judicial commissioner,” said Alauddin who presided together with Federal Court judges Datuk Arifin Zakaria and Datuk Hashim Yusoff.

Outside the court, lawyer Karpal Singh who represented the five Hindraf leaders, expressed regret that the highest court in the country did not address the issues of law which he had raised in the proceedings.

He said he would be filing for a review of yesterday’s decision.

Karpal hoped to file the review application by Monday, and would also write a letter to the court requesting for a written grounds of judgment to be supplied to them.

“We will call on Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar to seriously consider revoking the detention order and set them (the five Hindraf leaders) free,” he said.

— Bernama