A retired Singaporean engineer once again won his lawsuit against the Malaysian Immigration Department in the High Court today, obtaining a declaration that he was unlawfully detained for eight days four years ago.
This was Wong Chun Khuen’s second victory in his legal challenge against the detention by the Johor Immigration Department in 2018.
When contacted by Malaysiakini today, Wong’s lawyer Arun Kasi confirmed the matter, adding that the case was heard before High Court judge Amarjeet Singh Serjit Singh.
He said the judge also fixed Nov 16 for damages assessment for the case.
“In the view of the declaration, the court also ordered damages to be assessed, which is the damages payment that needs to be paid by the Immigration Department to Wong,” he said.
Wong was arrested by Immigration Department officers along with a few other foreigners during a raid on his house in Johor Bahru about 11.05pm on Feb 28, 2018.
After the arrest, Wong was detained at the Pekan Nanas Immigration Detention Centre. He was only produced before a magistrate on March 26 of the same year, whereby he pleaded guilty to an immigration offence under Section 55E of the Immigration Act for harbouring undocumented immigrants. He was fined RM30,000.
However, he was not released immediately after he paid the fine. In fact, Wong was detained for another eight days at the Kluang Prison, and then at the Pekan Nanas Immigration depot before he was released on April 4, 2018.
Detention orders ‘invalid’
According to Arun, the Order of Detention and Order of Removal were issued and served to his client on March 27, 2018.
However, he said that the court found that both of the orders were not issued within the confines of the law, therefore, the orders have no legal effect and cannot be regarded as evidence for the “lawful detention” of Wong.
He added that this case was also instructed by an international human rights advocate and lawyer M Ravi, who is based in Singapore.
The Immigration Department was represented by Federal counsel Mohammad Sallehuddin Md Ali.
Malaysiakini is seeking comments from the Immigration department.
Wong filed the civil action in the High Court on Jan 26 this year, seeking a declaratory order that Malaysian Immigration authorities have unlawfully detained him from March 28 to April 4 in 2018.
On May 5 last year, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur declared that Wong’s detention by the Johor Immigration Department from March 14 to 26, 2018, was illegal as the court found that Wong was not produced before a magistrate within 14 days of his arrest.
‘State-sanctioned terrorists’
Following the court decision today, Wong said that he was extremely happy that he won the case.
He claimed that the two illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional detentions were tantamount to kidnapping in order to collect “ransom” from his family for his release.
“This is also to terrorise and strike fear in detainees.
“Having this court win is a big win for all Immigration detainees against state-santioned terrorists,” Wong said without mincing his words.
In his press statement today, Wong claimed that these two court orders proved beyond any doubt that Malaysian Immigration authorities abused their power to detain him at their whims and fancies.
“It is needless to say that the Malaysian Immigration authorities would detain me in Pekan Nanas Immigration Depot for months had I not pleaded guilty on March 26, 2018.
“In hindsight now, I see that this ‘plead guilty’ decision saved my life. Because of this decision, I was released after eight more days of illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional detention,” he said.
He said he had a heart attack four months later after returning to Singapore and he managed to receive world-class medical treatment there.
“This decision was made by taking into consideration being continually detained in their inhumane immigration depot for an undetermined period, as was advised by my lawyers then. I truly averted a near-death experience considering the death of a Nigerian PhD student arising from unlawful detention,” he said.
Meanwhile, Wong said he is now considering pursuing police action as unlawful detention was a criminal offence under the Penal Code.
“To the Malaysian government, I am entitled to settle this inequality of justice between Malaysian and Singapore with respect to Malaysia laws,” he stressed. - Mkini
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