‘Free EO detainees on Deepavali’

Patrick Lee | October 21, 2011

The Human Rights Party wants all ISA and Emergency Ordinance detainees released so that they can celebrate Deepavali.

PETALING JAYA: Hundreds of people still detained under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) and the Internal Security Act (ISA) should be released this Deepavali, said the Human Rights Party (HRP).

HRP pro-tem secretary P Uthayakumar said that the federal government needed to free these detainees. The party claimed that 80% of those held under the EO were poor Indians.

“We hereby call upon Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Home Minister (Hishammuddin Hussein) on Deepavali – Nov 26- to release all the hundreds of EO detainees…at the Simpang Renggam and Machang, Kelantan prisons and also all the ISA detainees from Kamunting,” he said in a press statement.

“We symphatise with the mothers, wives, children, families and their loved ones who suffer the most from these arbitrary EO and ISA detentions.”

Uthayakumar added that these detainees should have been given due process of the law, as well as full legal aid.

He also claimed that the police was abusing its power through the use of the EO.

“The Royal Malaysian Police Force must really buck up and prove efficiency with their RM232.8 billion allocation in the 2012 Budget,” he said.