A former driver has mounted a challenge that his detention and police supervision under the amended Prevention of Crime Act 1959 are unconstitutional. R. Sureshwaran, 25, believed to be the first person to challenge the order, filed his papers at the Kuala Lumpur High Court registry today through counsel N. Surendran. Sureshwaran, who worked as a personal driver, has been placed under restricted residence in Parit Bakar in Muar for three years and will have to report to police three times a week. He was banished there following a May 29 order after being under police custody for 59 days, Surendran told reporters at the court today. In his application, Sureshwaran, who previously lived in Kota Damanasara in Subang, has asked the High Court to strike out the police supervision order issued on May 29 by a Crime Prevention Board. He also wants the court to revoke the findings of an inquiry officer made on May 5. Sureshwaran has named the inspector-general of police, the board, the home minister and the government as respondents in his application. In a supporting affidavit, he said his limited freedom of movement had resulted in many problems, including getting a job to support his family. He said the inquiry officer recommended that he be placed under police supervision on grounds that he participated in a ritual in Batu Caves to induct secret-society members. He was arrested on April 1 and held for 59 days for investigation but Sureshwaran said that during the inquiry he had no access to a lawyer. Surendran said Sureshwaran was not produced in court to challenge the allegation levelled against him. The PCA is akin to the repealed Internal Security Act and the Restricted Residence Act as the former allows for either detention without trial or restricts the movement of a citizen. Sureshwarans wife, R. Bathma, said her husband could not find a job to support her and his parents since he was restricted in Parit Bakar. The environment is totally alien as it is a Malay populated locality. Nobody wants to offer him a job upon hearing that he is a suspected criminal. His family members are now supporting him financially. Our lifestyle has completely been overturned, said the 28-year-old housewife. Soon after the PCA was passed by the Dewan Rakyat in the early hours of October 3 last year, the Malaysian Bar said it was troubled and disappointed that the amendments were passed into law. Its president, Christopher Leong, said the reintroduction of preventive detention without trial laws and the limitation or ouster of the jurisdiction of the courts in the PCA were a great blow to the rule of law in Malaysia. He said it was sad that for a country wishing to move forward, we had at midnight regressed and moved backwards. The amendments to the act will deny fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution to people based on belief or suspicion. – October 8, 2014.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 05:01:49 +0000
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