The Malaysian Insider
By Debra Chong
Banished to Linggi, Negri Sembilan for the next two years, Jiegandran wants the High Court to revoke the ministry’s order so he can return home to his family in Selangor.
He has been relocated to Lenggeng, another district in Negri Sembilan closer to the border with Selangor since September 24, Yohendra Nadarajan — another of Jiegandran’s lawyers — told The Malaysian Insider today.
In making their case before judge Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh of the appeals and special powers division of the High Court today, lawyers Daniel Albert and Syahrezan Johan suggested Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop may have been wrongly informed of Jiegandran’s age.
In his affidavit, Abu Seman had admitted he gave the order after reading the police report on the teen, but the lawyers pointed out that investigators had recorded Jiegandran to be 18 years old at the time of arrest on December 21 last year.
“He was a child. He doesn’t know his rights. He wasn’t told he had [the] right to counsel, he wasn’t told he had the right to a welfare officer, he wasn’t even allowed to inform his parents [he had been arrested],” Syahrezan said.
“The [deputy] minister gave the order the assumption the applicant (Jiegandran) was no longer a minor,” he added.
The lawyer’s remark drew Mohd Zawawi’s attention.
“So the entire decision was made on the wrong fact?” the bespectacled judge asked, for confirmation.
Syahrezan and his partner nodded emphatically.
“This should have been the first point. It’s significant… You should expand on this,” the judge advised.
Both Syahrezan and Daniel had circled around the issue earlier while speaking at length about Parliament’s intent in passing the Child Act in 2001 to protect the rights of persons under 18 years old, as well as the United Nations’ 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), an international treaty which Malaysia had signed on and was committed to uphold.
But senior federal counsel Amir Nasruddin who represented the Home Ministry argued that the rights of minors only applied to ordinary criminal laws and not preventive laws such as the EO.
“The law applies to everybody,” he stressed.
Amir maintained his stand, even when pointedly quizzed by Mohd Zawawi about Abu Seman issuing the order based on a wrong fact.
The government lawyer told the court that Jiegandran had been taken in several times before by the police and had a history of associating with a violent group that had showed elements of organised criminal behaviour.
The judge, however, did not appear to be convinced.
Mohd Zawawi instead told the lawyer to prepare better arguments grounded on the law to support his submissions before adjourning hearing to November 18, at 2.30pm.
By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — The Home Ministry gave an order to detain a teenage boy under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) earlier this year not knowing he was still a minor, the High Court here was told today.
Jiegandran Panir Selvam was 17 when he was arrested by the police, allegedly for being involved with a hardened gang of motorcycle thieves, and then locked up for 60 days under the preventive law previously used on communists.
Jiegandran, who reached the age of maturity on May 22 this year, is challenging the Home Ministry for detaining him illegally while still a child.
The teen’s lawyers, arguing for his release, pointed out that under the law a person below the age of 18 is still a child and cannot be punished as an adult.
The schoolboy, who would be sitting for his SPM examination now, was locked up at the Semenyih Detention Centre from January 12 to March 11 and was later placed under restricted residence by order of the same ministry.
Jiegandran Panir Selvam was 17 when he was arrested by the police, allegedly for being involved with a hardened gang of motorcycle thieves, and then locked up for 60 days under the preventive law previously used on communists.
Jiegandran, who reached the age of maturity on May 22 this year, is challenging the Home Ministry for detaining him illegally while still a child.
The teen’s lawyers, arguing for his release, pointed out that under the law a person below the age of 18 is still a child and cannot be punished as an adult.
The schoolboy, who would be sitting for his SPM examination now, was locked up at the Semenyih Detention Centre from January 12 to March 11 and was later placed under restricted residence by order of the same ministry.
Banished to Linggi, Negri Sembilan for the next two years, Jiegandran wants the High Court to revoke the ministry’s order so he can return home to his family in Selangor.
He has been relocated to Lenggeng, another district in Negri Sembilan closer to the border with Selangor since September 24, Yohendra Nadarajan — another of Jiegandran’s lawyers — told The Malaysian Insider today.
In making their case before judge Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh of the appeals and special powers division of the High Court today, lawyers Daniel Albert and Syahrezan Johan suggested Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop may have been wrongly informed of Jiegandran’s age.
In his affidavit, Abu Seman had admitted he gave the order after reading the police report on the teen, but the lawyers pointed out that investigators had recorded Jiegandran to be 18 years old at the time of arrest on December 21 last year.
“He was a child. He doesn’t know his rights. He wasn’t told he had [the] right to counsel, he wasn’t told he had the right to a welfare officer, he wasn’t even allowed to inform his parents [he had been arrested],” Syahrezan said.
“The [deputy] minister gave the order the assumption the applicant (Jiegandran) was no longer a minor,” he added.
The lawyer’s remark drew Mohd Zawawi’s attention.
“So the entire decision was made on the wrong fact?” the bespectacled judge asked, for confirmation.
Syahrezan and his partner nodded emphatically.
“This should have been the first point. It’s significant… You should expand on this,” the judge advised.
Both Syahrezan and Daniel had circled around the issue earlier while speaking at length about Parliament’s intent in passing the Child Act in 2001 to protect the rights of persons under 18 years old, as well as the United Nations’ 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), an international treaty which Malaysia had signed on and was committed to uphold.
But senior federal counsel Amir Nasruddin who represented the Home Ministry argued that the rights of minors only applied to ordinary criminal laws and not preventive laws such as the EO.
“The law applies to everybody,” he stressed.
Amir maintained his stand, even when pointedly quizzed by Mohd Zawawi about Abu Seman issuing the order based on a wrong fact.
The government lawyer told the court that Jiegandran had been taken in several times before by the police and had a history of associating with a violent group that had showed elements of organised criminal behaviour.
The judge, however, did not appear to be convinced.
Mohd Zawawi instead told the lawyer to prepare better arguments grounded on the law to support his submissions before adjourning hearing to November 18, at 2.30pm.
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