| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Malaysia refuses to free KMM members |
| 2004-09-02 |
| A Malaysian court has rejected a plea by five alleged members of an Islamic militant group to secure their freedom. The five, who include the son of the opposition party's spiritual leader, have been detained without trial or charge for three years. They were among a group of prisoners who held a hunger strike earlier this year to protest at their treatment. The five men were arrested in mid-2001 under Malaysia's controversial internal security laws. All the men are alleged to belong to an organisation the police dub the Malaysian Militant Group, or KMM, which is believed to be linked to Jemaah Islamiah, the group behind the Bali bombings. Under Malaysian law, courts are allowed to detain suspects without charge or trial for periods of two years. The men's lawyers have sought to challenge a decision by the internal security minister to extend their detention for a further two years. On Wednesday, the High Court ruled that the minister had acted within a law that effectively allows the government to detain suspects indefinitely. The accused men are said to have plotted to overthrow the government, but no evidence has ever been made public. Their alleged leader is Nik Adli Nik Aziz, a former fighter with the Afghan mujahadeen. His arrest is widely seen as political - his father is both the chief minister of the state of Kelantan and spiritual leader of the conservative Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or Pas. Shortly before the country's general election in March, the group staged a 19-day hunger strike, demanding that the government either charge or release them. Their call was backed by the Malaysian government's own human rights commission as well as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Malaysia is currently holding around 80 alleged Islamic militants under the Internal Security Act. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Pas the Pan-Malaysian ass-clown society. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-09-02 4:45:26 AM |