31 PSM members still in police custody

Party members, including Sungai Siput MP, are being detained after they were stopped from carrying out their campaign to oust BN.

TAIPING: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) secretary-general Arutchelvan today accused the police of being extremely paranoid over the much publicised July 9 Bersih public rally.

As such, he said, they were abusing their powers in arresting people who were exercising their democratic rights in speech and action.

“The police are extremely paranoid about the Bersih rally and are unnecessarily harassing people by curbing their freedom of action by putting unnecessary police road blocks,” he told FMT today.

“They (the police) are not acting according to the law and are carrying out orders from higher ups. They do not see whether their actions are legally right or wrong but merely following orders (from political masters),” Arutchelvan pointed out.

He told this in response to the police action in arresting scores of PSM members and supporters for taking part in a nationwide campaign since Friday. At least 31 PSM members and supporters, including Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar, are still being held by the police.

Those arrested were taking part in PSM’s campaign calling for BN to step aside.

The campaign was launched on Friday and started with Arutchelvan and 28 PSM supporters travelling from Johor Baru to Kuala Lumpur in a chartered bus. Another PSM convoys took off from Ipoh to Perlis on the same day.

Their mission was to inform the public that BN had to be removed after 54 years of alleged misrule and the pitfall of returning BN to power in the 13 general election. However both the convoys faced police obstructions in the form of road blocks.

Arutchelvan’s group was stopped by the police in Ledang (Johor) and each of them were subjected to body searches for hidden weapons. The bus was also searched.

Arutchelvan said the police delayed their journey by about 150 minutes before taking them to the Ledang police station to record their statements. They were eventually released at 4am on Saturday on police bail.

To be charged with sedition and illegal assembly

They were informed that they will be charged under :

• Section 27(5) of the Police Act 1967 read together with Section 511 of the Penal Code for illegal assembly.

• Section 11(2) of the Printing and Press Act 1984 for publishing pamphlets and leaflets.

• Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act 1948 for sedition.

Arutchelvan said the three charges will not hold water as the group was travelling on a bus when they were detained by police, and as such there was no illegal gathering.

He added the police had purposely delayed the group’s journey to Malacca where they were supposed to have a ceramah at 5pm on Friday and later at 8.30pm at Kuala Pilah in Negeri Sembilan.

As a result of the police detention, the two PSM programmes had to be cancelled.

Arutchelvan had lodged two separate police reports against each of the district police chiefs of Ledang and Nusajaya for unlawful detention, bad intention and politically motivated for detaining the group without any valid reasons.

31 held in Penang

Meanwhile another PSM group consisting of 31 people led by Jeyakumar that went north from Ipoh to Perlis was detained by police at the Sungai Dua toll plaza in Kepala Batas in Penang, also on suspicion of allegedly carrying dangerous weapons and in possession of inflammatory materials.

Jeyakumar’s personal assistant S Nagenteran told FMT that the detained group was forced to give two separate statements to the police – one yesterday evening while another at 2am today before they were detained at three police stations at about 4 am.

Fourteen male members of the group are being detained at the Butterworth police station while another 14 women are held at the Kapala Batas police station. Three under-aged youths are being held at the Sungai Dua police station.

Nagentaran said lawyers were denied access to the group members. The detainees are expected to be remanded until Monday.

The police had also dispersed about 20 NGO members who had gathered in front of the Sungai Dua police station to hold a candlelight vigil. Two persons were arrested for illegal assembly as well.