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Friday, 28 January 2011

Home arrow News arrow Legal/General News arrow Conviction against five for unlawful assembly upheld * * Malaysian Bar Web Ads * Malaysian Bar Web Ads * Malaysian Bar Web Ads * Malaysian Bar Web Ads * Malaysian Bar Web Ads Conviction against five for unlawful assembly upheld

The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has dismissed an appeal against the conviction of five men found guilty of participating in an unlawful assembly 10 years ago.

Nik Norhafizi Nik Ibrahim, 31, Zulkefli Idris, 31, Ahmad Kamal Abdul Hamid,30, Rafzan Ramli, 34, and Khairul Amal Mahmud, 31 – who were undergraduates at that time – were fined RM3,900 each in default three months’ jail by a magistrate’s court on June 18, 2009.

In her ruling yesterday, High Court judge Justice Su Geok Yiam said the court was satisfied that the appeal had no merit.

She added that Section 27(5)(a) of the Police Act 1967, the section under which the five men were convicted, did not prevent members of the public from exercising their right to assemble, but merely spoke to control or regulate such manner.

The court then upheld the conviction and fine by the magistrate’s court.

The five were charged on July 19, 2001, with participating in an unlawful assembly in the compound of Mesjid Negara between 2pm and 2.15pm on June 8, 2001.

They had taken part in a protest against the Internal Security Act and were held at the Tun H.S. Lee police station lock-up overnight after their arrest.

They were later expelled from their universities.

Their case was heard in a magistrate’s court on July 14, 2003. All five were acquitted in 2005.

Following an appeal by the prosecution, the High Court called the five to enter their defence on Nov 11, 2006, and remitted their case back to the magistrate’s court. The defence case started on March 15, 2007.

Lawyer Edmund Bon represented the five men while DPP Mohd Hafiz Mohd Yusoff acted for the prosecution.

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