KUALA LUMPUR: The habeas corpus application filed by five individuals, including two state assemblymen, from Malacca and Negeri Sembilan, who have been arrested over alleged links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is set for mention on Thursday (Oct 24).
According to the court’s list of cases, the case will be called before High Court deputy registrar Raja Shahril Anuar Raja Baniamin at 10am.
At the mention, the court will set a date for hearing the habeas corpus application and other instructions related to the case.
Yesterday, G. Saminathan, 34, P. Gunasekaran, 60, S. Chandru, 38, V. Suresh Kumar, 43, and a technician S. Arivainathan, 56, filed a habeas corpus petition at the court registry office here, among others requesting their release from detention immediately.
Gunasekaran and Saminathan are assemblymen for Gadek and Seremban Jaya respectively, while Chandru and Suresh Kumar are DAP members.
They are also seeking to challenge their detention under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) on the issue.
The five, as applicants, named Bukit Aman’s Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division (E8) principal assistant director Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, Inspector Jasveer Singh (the officer who arrested them), Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador, the Home Ministry and the Government of Malaysia as the first to fifth respondents.
In the application, all of them applied for a court order that their detention by notice under Section 5 (1)a of the Sosma Act 2012 dated between Oct 10 and 12 issued by the second respondent (Jasveer) and executed under the supervision of the first respondent (Ayob Khan) at the Royal Malaysian Police Headquarters in Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur was null and void.
They also sought a writ of habeas corpus be issued by the court for immediate release from detention, besides applying for such other relief deemed fit and appropriate by the court.
The application also alleges that their detention violated the principle of equal rights and did not have right of access to a lawyer at the time of the incident.
The application also comes with a certificate of urgency to expedite the hearing of the habeas corpus.
Earlier this month, 12 people were arrested on suspicion of supporting and channeling funds to the LTTE, which has been listed as a terrorist group in Malaysia since 2014. — Bernama
