Media Statement
Justice Hishamuddin's Order: Present ISA Detainees In Court
In ruling so, J. Hishamuddin held - against the grain of recent legal developments in the country - that the constitutional rights of citizens can never be compromised. He upheld the position that the Constitution is the source of all civil and legal rights and must always be zealously respected.
J. Hishamuddin's judgment confirms what the public has long suspected. The police should not be allowed to hide the ISA detainees from the Court's purview. If the police had solid evidence against the detainees in the first place, they would have had no reason to use the ISA.
Malaysians will also welcome J. Hishamuddin's rejection of the prosecution's application for a stay of execution pending an appeal. J. Hishamuddin's insistence on an immediate execution of the court's ruling unambiguously supports the principle that 'Justice delayed is justice denied'.
However, Malaysians who demand justice for the ISA detainees cannot prematurely celebrate J. Hishamuddin's judgment. The police, their political masters and the prosecution will not accept this judgment. They will do whatever they can to have the judgment overturned.
We should not forget that the prosecution acts on behalf of a police force that has become less and less willing to justify its actions. We should remember that the prosecution works at the behest of a regime that has relentlessly sought to exclude judicial review of ISA cases.
In the past, ISA detainees, including Karpal Singh and Datuk James Wong Kim Min, were freed by the courts only to be re-arrested immediately upon leaving the courts - an all too clear contempt for the court's intervention in favour of helpless ISA detainees.
Hence, while Malaysians have cause to be encouraged by J. Hishamuddin's judgment, they have no reason to let up on their opposition to the ISA. Oppose all injustices committed under ISA until all detainees are freed and this despicable instrument of authoritarian rule is abolished!
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Together with Malaysians who support the rule of law, Aliran heartily welcomes the judgment of Justice Datuk Hishamuddin Mohd Yunus who ruled in the Shah Alam Hight Court on Thursday, 4 May 2001 that ISA detainees must be present in court for hearings on their habeas corpus applications. While presiding over the habeas corpus applications filed on behalf of Abdul Ghani Harun and N Gobalakrishnan, J. Hishamuddin unequivocally ruled that ISA detainees have both a legal right and a constitutional right to be protected under the law.