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Malaysia unrest: no bail for 31 Indians

SINGAPORE: Thirty-one persons, said to be followers and sympathisers of the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF), on Thursday were denied bail in a case relating to the protest over alleged marginalisation of the Malaysian Indians.

Declining to grant bail, Judge Azimah Omar of a Sessions Court cited national security as the key factor that governed her ruling. She emphasised that the case did not impinge on racial and religious issues.

The charge was that the accused made an attempt to murder a police officer in front of a temple on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur on the eve of the November 25 mass rally in that city.

The HINDRAF organised the rally to focus international attention on alleged discrimination against ethnic Indians in the country with a core Malay majority. People of Chinese stock and of Indian origin constitute the main minorities.

The accused, who pleaded not guilty, were said to be among those who had gathered at the temple before proceeding to downtown Kuala Lumpur to participate in the HINDRAF-organised rally. Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowds outside the temple, in the first place, and later during the rally in Kuala Lumpur.

Police had earlier issued a pre-emptive order to declare protest rally in Kuala Lumpur illegal ab initio. This order was based on a court ruling against the planned demonstration as it then was. Consequently, the rally-eve gathering in front of Sri Subramaniar Temple at Batu Caves, on the city outskirts, was also considered illegal.

The case involving the 31 ethnic Indians is being taken very seriously by the Malaysian authorities. Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail led the prosecution, a move regarded as rare during a pre-trial hearing in a Sessions Court. The accused were produced on charges that would not admit of bail except at the discretion of the Sessions Judge.

At least three among the accused were said to have health problems. The judge was not satisfied with the evidence submitted to seek leniency on health grounds.

The defence team has indicated its intention to appeal against the denial of bail, and the Sessions Court is reported to have set January 14 for commencement of the trial.

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