Teen sues home minister for exile
Kuala Lumpur: Seventeen-year-old Jagendran Panir Selvam will face the biggest trial of his young life tomorrow when he challenges the home minister for forcing him to live away from home and family under the Restricted Residence Act (RRA).
The fifth-former from Selangor, together with three others, was arrested by the police at his home in Semenyih last Dec 21, on suspicion of having a stolen vehicle and being a public nuisance.
He was sent to Simpang Renggam for 60 days on Jan 10 after being held under the Emergency Ordinance (EO), an archaic law that provides for detention without trial, similar to the Internal Security Act (ISA).
“He is 17 this year and supposed to sit for [his] SPM but he cannot go to school,” E. Nalini, the co-ordinator for Suaram, a Malaysian human rights watchdog, told The Malaysian Insider today.
“He now lives on his own in a rural area in Linggi, Negri Sembilan. He has limited access to his family.
“He has to report to the police once a week under the Restricted Residence Act,” she added.
Nalini then claimed Jagendran was “tortured physically and mentally by the police” the entire duration of his detention in Simpang Renggam.
The RRA, introduced by the British in 1933, was originally meant to control the widespread movement of communist insurgents in then Malaya.
The Bar Council maintains that the RRA was never meant to offset the use of ordinary criminal laws, which provide safeguards for the rights of accused persons.
The schoolboy’s case has been fixed for hearing at the High Court here at 9am tomorrow.
Representing him are lawyers Amer Hamzah Arshad and Syahredzan Johan.
25/04/10
PEOPLE'S POWER
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