Video clearly shows Suaram leader being arrested, lawyer tells ministry

FMT:

 

Video clearly shows

Suaram leader being

arrested, lawyer tells

ministry

FMT Reporters

-13 Feb 2025, 11:37 AM

Lawyers for Liberty’s Zaid Malek slams the home ministry for denying that Sevan Doraisamy was arrested.

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Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy entering the police vehicle which brought him to the Putrajaya police headquarters to give his statement.

PETALING JAYA: 

Rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) has slammed the home ministry for denying that an NGO leader was arrested by the police yesterday, saying video evidence shows that Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) executive director Sevan Doraisamy was detained by the cops.

LFL director Zaid Malek said a video of the situation outside Suaram’s office yesterday clearly showed policemen demanding that Sevan follow them to the Putrajaya police headquarters to give his statement.

He also said the video showed the cops refusing to allow Sevan to give his statement at a later date.

“The videos serve as absolute proof that the denial by the police (and home ministry) is baseless and dishonest.

“Did no one from the home ministry look at the clips before coming out with a statement that is contrary to the video evidence?” Zaid said in a statement.

He said arresting Sevan just to record his statement was high-handed, unlawful, and a blatant abuse of police powers, adding that this contravened the laws prohibiting the arrest of a person to compel them to give a statement.

Yesterday, Suaram claimed that Sevan and its coordinator Azura Nasron were arrested after police came to the NGO’s office to serve the duo with a notice under Section 111 of the Criminal Procedure Code to give their statements to the police.

They were released after spending about an hour giving their statements.

The home ministry and Putrajaya police chief Aidi Sham Mohamed denied that the pair had been arrested, with the ministry insisting that they were only called in to give their statements.

They were hauled in for their statements after Suaram leaders and family members of detainees under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 allegedly entered the home ministry’s complex in Putrajaya without permission.

They had wanted to hand over a memorandum demanding urgent answers about the detainees’ well-being to a ministry official, but were initially barred from entering the complex.