Family members of detained HINDRAF human rights lawyers arrested Your Excellency

Mizan Zainal Abidin ibni al-Marhum Sultan Mahmud
Supreme Head of State (Yang di-Pertuan Agong)
Office of the Head of State
Istana Negara
50500 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
23 October 2008

Re: Family members of detained HINDRAF human rights lawyers arrested
Your Excellency,

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports that family members of detained Hindu Rights
Action Force (HINDRAF) lawyers were amongst 11 persons who were arrested on 23 October
2008, including the 6-year old daughter of HINDRAF Chairperson P. Waythamoorthy, as they
attempted to submit a letter to the Prime Minister's office in Putrajaya.
On 23 October 2008, at approximately 3.15 pm, P. Vwaishhnnavi, daughter of P. Waythamoorthy
and niece of HINDRAF leader P. Uthayakumar, approached the Prime Minister's office in Putrajaya
together with her mother K. Shanti, S. Jayathas, P. Taramaraju, P. Waytha Nayagi, Poobalan,
R. Kannan, Mary Shanti, Bala, Rajasekaran and Ravi Sundaram. They were there to accompany
P. Vwaishhnnavi as she submitted a Deepavali card to the Prime Minister in which she called for
the release of all those falsely imprisoned under the Internal Security Act (ISA), including five
human rights defenders from HINDRAF and also invited the Prime Minister to her home for an
open house to celebrate the festival. The 11 detained persons are currently being held at the
Putrajaya district police headquarters. Police Chief Abd Razak Abd Majid declined to comment on
the arrests but reports indicate that the child, the two women and eight men are being held under
either the Societies Act, for participating in an unlawful society, or the Police Act, for illegal
assembly.
On 15 October 2008 the Home Ministry officially declared the HINDRAF organisation illegal, as a
result of investigations by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) which reportedly found that 'the
organisation’s activities contravened the Societies Act 1966 and if left unchecked, the organisation
could pose a threat to public order, peace, security and morality in Malaysia'.
Messrs P. Uthayakumar, M. Manoharan, V. Ganapathy Rao, T. Vasanthakumar and
R. Kengatharan were arrested on 13 December 2007 and charged under the Internal Security Act
(ISA) of Malaysia on the grounds of threatening national security by organising a peaceful
demonstration. All five human rights defenders had taken up and worked on, on a pro bono basis,
many cases of death in police custody and police violence. They had filed many cases against the
Malaysian Government and authorities. Chairperson P. Waythamoorthy remains in self-exile in the
United Kingdom.
Front Line believes that the above-mentioned persons have been arrested and detained solely on
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account of their legitimate human rights activities calling for the release of Messrs P. Uthayakumar,
M. Manoharan, V. Ganapathy Rao, T. Vasanthakumar and R. Kengatharan. In addition Front Line
believes that the five members of HINDRAF were targeted as a result of their work defending the
rights of the ethnic minority Indians in Malaysia. Front Line is concerned for the physical and
psychological integrity of all of the aforementioned human rights defenders.
Front Line urges the Malaysian authorities to:
1. Immediately release the above-mentioned persons who were arrested on 23 October 2008,
as well as Messrs P. Uthayakumar, M. Manoharan, V. Ganapathy Rao, T. Vasanthakumar
and R. Kengatharan as it is believed that they are being detained solely on account of their
legitimate human rights activities;
2. Immediately repeal the decision to ban HINDRAF;
3. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological security and
integrity of the aforementioned human rights defenders and their family members;
4. Guarantee in all circumstances that human rights defenders in Malaysia are able to carry
out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals, and free of all
restrictions including judicial harassment.
Front Line respectfully reminds you that the United Nations Declaration on the Right and
Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally
Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by consensus by the UN
General Assembly on 9 December 1998, recognises the legitimacy of the activities of human rights
defenders, their right to freedom of association and to carry out their activities without fear of
reprisals. We would particularly draw attention to Article 5 “For the purpose of promoting and
protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, everyone has the right, individually and in
association with others, at the national and international levels: (a) To meet or assemble
peacefully”; and to Article 12 (2): “The State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the
protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others,
against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or
any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred
to in the present declaration.”
Yours sincerely,
Mary Lawlor
Director