Media Statement
What is Justice all about?
We fail to understand how the mere presence of the two ISA detainees, N Gobalakrishnan and Abdul Ghani Haroon, would have affected their habeas corpus application or the outcome of the case.
Would their presence in court have in any way aborted the prosecution's case or interfered with the court's proceedings? There is not even an iota of evidence to suggest this.
Why is the government fighting tooth and nail to keep the detainees away from public view? Why are they ignoring and denying the Human Rights Commission's (SUHAKAM) right of access to the detainees? Is there something that has to be hidden?
The entire episode encourages a lot of speculation and creates unnecessary suspicion. Producing the detainees in court would have dispelled all these uncertainties.
An overwhelming majority of Malaysians who remain sceptical that the detainees are safe and sound had looked forward expectantly to the court, hoping that natural justice would prevail over legal technicalities. The Federal Court's decision has dashed their hopes.
We remain deeply concerned about the detainees' physical and mental well-being. Many Malaysians are not prepared to accept the authorities' assurances that the detainees have not suffered either physically or mentally.
The only hope now lies in SUHAKAM's ability in discharging their statutory duty and asserting their statutory powers to visit the detainees and to assure the public that they have not been harmed.
We call upon Suhakam chairman Tan Sri Musa Hitam and his Commissioners to appear at Bukit Aman and demand access to the detainees. With his stature and eminence, would the police dare to turn him away?
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Aliran is deeply disappointed by the Federal Court's ruling that detainees under the Internal Security Act (ISA) do not have a constitutional right to be present in court for their habeas corpus proceedings.