Police deny rejecting Women's March rally notice four times

 

Police have denied refusing four times to accept a rally notice for the Women’s March Malaysia 2024.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Allaudeen Abdul Majid said the first notice sent by the organisers on Friday was incomplete.

“They claimed that they sent the notice four times, but we only received the first notice which was incomplete.

“The second, third, and fourth notices, we don’t know where they sent them,” he was quoted as saying by Utusan Malaysia today.

He implied that the organisers had only filled nine out of 14 items on the notice form, while the others were just filled with a dash or edited.

Yesterday, a representative of the organisers told the media that the first notice was rejected because it did not have an official letter attached, which they claimed was not required in the past.

They then tried to re-submit the notice via courier, and also through a lawyer on Sunday.

They said the documents they submitted on Monday - which were accepted - were the same as the ones they had tried to submit over the weekend.

No permits required

The Women’s March is set to be held this Saturday morning, with a planned march from Sogo to Dataran Merdeka.

Allaudeen further denied that police had insisted on permits for the rally, which were phased out when the Peaceful Assembly Act was introduced in 2012.

“We have never said permit. When did the police say they could not give permits when they didn’t exist?

“We can’t give something that is not in the law because it has been abolished from the Police Act,” he said.

Previously, police - including Deputy Inspector-General of Police Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay - have repeatedly maintained that rally organisers need to apply for police permits.

Yesterday Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Hussain brushed it off as a miscommunication with some district police chiefs accidentally saying “permit” instead of “notice”. - Mkini