Incoming PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has called for immediate remedial action to be taken over the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) detainees who went on a hunger strike yesterday.
“I do not condone violence, terrorism or compromise with any criminal act. We should be tough and firm.
“But we must respect due process, and from what I know and observed in Sungai Buloh (prison), the new law Sosma is far worse in terms of treating prisoners than the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA).
“Those who are protesting, those prisoners under Sosma, must be given adequate safeguards of their rights,” he said in his speech during the launch of a book titled Anwar Returns: The Final Twist at the Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur today.
It was reported yesterday that about 215 Sosma detainees at the Sungai Buloh prison – where Anwar was once detained – were on a hunger strike that began at 8am on Friday.
They said their protest would not cease until the government gives its assurance that it would abolish Sosma, or until they are each granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.
They were joined yesterday by family members who gathered outside the prison in solidarity with their relatives inside.
Sungai Buloh MP R Sivarasa, who met with the family members during the protest, advised them to produce a written memorandum which he said he would deliver to the home minister and the de facto law minister.
'Not right for a democratic society'
At today's event, Anwar criticised the treatment of detainees under Sosma in prison, saying that they are kept in solitary confinement, given restricted access to their families, lawyers as well as time to exercise.
He said there should be a law to deal with perpetrators of terrorism, but he believed the provisions under Sosma are too “vague.”
Such laws, he added, are not the right legal framework for a democratic society.
“What I’m questioning is the blanket vague range of legal flexibility that may allow the authorities to decide without recourse (for the detainees).
“This, I think, may not be the right legal framework for a free, democratic country,” he said.
Anwar also said he would take up the issue with Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
Attorney-general Tommy Thomas assured yesterday that the abolishment of the contentious security law was "just a matter of time."
The sentiment was shared by de facto Deputy Law Minister Hanipa Maidin, who visited the Sosma detainees at the Sungai Buloh prison today.
After his visit, he said 118 of the detainees had agreed to end their hunger strike.
-Mkini
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