“The arrest has damaged our reputation and caused unnecessary tension and emotional trauma to our families, who had no idea what had happened to us,” said Mahfuz (right in photo, with Salahuddin).The Pokok Sena parliamentarian pointed out that police detained him at KL Sentral for violating the restriction order issued on July 7 against 91 individuals, including Salahuddin and himself.
The duo were arrested at the entrance to the city transit terminal, and had missed out on the commotion that followed in KL Sentral's underpass where Bersih marchers and opposition leaders were forced to scatter after riot police fired tear gas.
According to the order signed by a Kuala Lumpur magistrate last week, the 91 were barred from being at Jalan Syed Putra, Jalan Istana, Jalan Bukit Petaling, Jalan Bellamy and the area surrounding Istana Negara.
They were also barred from Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin, Jalan Lembah Perdana, Jalan Cenderasari and the area around Masjid Negara.The police listed Dataran Merdeka, Central Market, Masjid Jamek, Dataran DBKL, Sogo shopping mall, Maju Junction, Kampung Baru mosque, Jalan Kinabalu, Jalan Kuching, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Jalan Haji Taib, Jalan Raja Muda Musa, Jalan Raja Bot, Jalan Dang Wangi, Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Jalan Gereja, Jalan Raja Chulan, Jalan Tun Perak, Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Loke, Jalan Sultan Mahmud as areas the 91 cannot enter.
“We were at the press conference at Hilton Hotel opposite KL Sentral, and after the press conference we walked from the hotel lobby into KL Sentral where a police personnel stopped me and asked, “Do you not know you are restricted from coming into KL (Kuala Lumpur)?” said Mahfuz.He argued that they were not prohibited from the KL Sentral area and had not committed any crime by being present.
Mahfuz and Salahuddin were among 1,667 nabbed during Saturday's Bersih 2.0 rally demanding electoral reforms.
Salahuddin, who is the MP for Kubang Kerian MP, said they were not told where they were being taken.
"We were taken to the police station in Jinjang, but not given access to our lawyers and not able to inform our families what had happened," he said.
The police released the detainees in batches, and Mahfuz and Salahuddin were let go at 9.30 that night.
"We were definitely taken in for no reason because we were not instructed to report back," said Mahfuz, adding that the police action meant that their release was unconditional.
Both the MPs are planning to take legal action against the police and the government after finalising the details with their lawyers.
“We see it as an unlawful arrest from the legal point of view and against court orders," said Mahfuz after lodging a police report at the Brickfields district police headquarters in Sri Petaling.
"The police had only asked if we were aware that there was a court order banning us from entering Kuala Lumpur, as if we were arrested because we went against the court order."
Ten of thousands of people took to streets of Kuala Lumpur last Saturday in support of Bersih's cause calling for clean and fair elections.
While Bersih organisers said their protest was a success, with some 50,000 people turning up despite police warnings, the government lauded the rest of Malaysians for not taking part in the street demonstration, and claimed that only 5,000 to 6,000 people had supported the cause.
The after-effect of the rally does not seem to have fizzled, with the police remaining alert on anybody wearing Bersih's banned T-shirts.
Even today, a representative of PAS' Muslimat wing, Norhafizah Basaruddin(left), was questioned for wearing a Bersih overall.
An inspector from the Brickfields district police station approached the 29-year-old, who was there to show support, and asked for her details.
"The district police chief instructed me to get her details," said the officer, who left immediately after jotting down her MyKad details.
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