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Monday, May 4, 2015

Ambiga labels Bukit Aman superiors ‘faceless cowards’

Rights activist and lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan (left) and PAS lawmaker Dr Hatta Ramli arriving at the Jinjang remand centre on Saturday. Ambiga says the arrest process is designed to dehumanise detainees. – The Malaysian Insider pic, May 4, 2015.Rights activist and lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan (left) and PAS lawmaker Dr Hatta Ramli arriving at the Jinjang remand centre on Saturday. Ambiga says the arrest process is designed to dehumanise detainees. – The Malaysian Insider pic, May 4, 2015.
Rights activist and lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan accepts that the police personnel on the ground who detained her were just doing their job but hit out at their superiors in Bukit Aman as being “faceless cowards”, Malaysiakini reported today.
Relating her ordeal of being detained overnight following her participation in the Workers Day rally, the former president of the Malaysian Bar said police on the ground treated her reasonably well and kept saying they were following orders.
Ambiga also reportedly said police were using their arresting powers and remand process as a "system of punishment", when it should be done to facilitate investigations.
Their action is based on a set agenda and this is not professional policing," she was quoted as saying.
Ambiga said despite being asked to be present at the Dang Wangi police headquarters on Friday night for her participation in the rally, her statement was only taken hours later.
She added that she had asked the police why they could not wait until the next day when the police had telephoned her asking her to come in, but said they had insisted that she go in that night itself.
She went to the police station at 9.30pm, but her statement was only recorded at 3am on Saturday.
Police also told her that she would be taken to the Jinjang police station to be held overnight and had attempted to handcuff her, the report said.
"I pulled away and insisted that I was not going, so there was a bit of pulling and tugging.
"I asked that they take my statement right then and they did. The process only lasted about 45 minutes," she reportedly said.
She said the aim of the arresting process was to dehumanise, adding: "That's what happened to me. They used their arresting powers to punish me. The dehumanising that takes place is incredible."
Ambiga, however, praised the magistrate for rejecting the police application for a four-day remand against her and two others who were arrested alongside her – DAP's Anthony Loke and PSM secretary-general S. Arulchelvam.
According to the report, the magistrate had demanded to know why the police needed a four-day remand, with Ambiga's lawyer asking if the police thought she would run away or interfere with witnesses.
Ambiga also reportedly said that the magistrate had noted that they had voluntarily gone to the police station after being summoned.
"The officer could not answer these questions," Ambiga was quoted as saying in the Malaysiakini report.
She was then told to report back at the Dang Wangi station at 4pm to collect her MyKad, but when she went there, she was made to wait a few more hours.
It was then that she had her fingerprints taken and photographed.
Ambiga also reportedly said she was puzzled at being investigated under the Sedition Act and for participation in an unlawful assembly, adding that she did not know what part of what she said was seditious.
"I only spoke for two minutes (at the rally).
“I merely said not only is the GST burdening the people, but we must also protest against oppressive laws and corruption.
"The campaign (of the police) is to punish those who went to the rally," she said, according to the report.
Ambiga was also shocked at the way PKR lawmaker Tian Chua was said to have been treated when he was detained in Penang, adding that if the allegations were true, he should sue the inspector-general of police.
“What kind of country are we living in? Look at the public resources wasted.
"The same thing happened with (PKR vice-president) Nurul Izzah Anwar (who was detained overnight for her remarks on the judiciary following Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's February 10 conviction).
"When I went there (after Nurul Izzah was arrested), we told the police officers that we want to see the person giving the orders, just to appeal to him so that she can be released and not be held overnight. They made the call, but that person refused to yield," Ambiga said.
- TMI

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