KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 — The police will not charge those arrested — including five lawyers — at a candle-light vigil last week, ending further embarrassment to themselves as rights groups blasted the crackdown.
They said there was no need to extend their bail as the police would not be pursuing the case anymore.
Earlier today, a large group of lawyers gathered outside the Brickfields police station in support of their five colleagues who were held while trying to provide legal assistance to 14 activists who had been arrested for attending the candle-light vigil.
Also outside the police station this morning were more than a dozen activists in black T-shirts including Bersih spokesman Wong Chin Huat.
While the morning starting out calmly, the situation later almost turned into a repeat of last week's fiasco when the police ordered the crowd to disperse and threatened to make arrests if people ignored the warning.
The police said the crowd had no permit to gather and they would be arrested for illegal assembly if they did not disperse. A light strike force was already on standby at this point.
After three warnings, the police started moving in to make arrests but at this point the crowd had already moved away from the police station entrance. No arrests were made.
Brickfields OCPD Wan Bari Wan Abdul Khalid, speaking at a press conference later, said it was not necessary for the crowd to gather as those arrested last week had been informed that they need not return to the police station.
He said the police had already contacted the lawyer representing all of those arrested yesterday evening informing them of the police's decision not to pursue the case anymore. "That is why we told the crowd to disperse. It is wrong for them to do that," he said.
Human rights lawyer Latheefa Koya, however, claimed the lawyers were not informed of the police decision.
"If we were informed, you won't have the Bar Council vice-president Lim Chee Wee present at the police station," she told The Malaysian Insider.
Earlier, Lim reiterated calls for the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to prevent similar incidents in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment