P.Uthayakumar’s first arrest in 2003. High court civil suit begins today.

P.Uthayakumar testified at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today 21/6/10 that he had been arrested by the Malay-sian police on 11 occasions. The tenth was his arrest under the ISA for 514 days. 21/6/2010 has been set for the first unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution of P.Uthayakumar’s civil suit against the Chief Police Officer of Kuala Lumpur, Chief Police officer of Selangor,  SAC II Abu Bakar Mustaffa, eight other police officers and the government of Malaysia before Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Yang Arif  Puan Rosilah binti Yup.  P.Uthayakumar was represented by lawyer Manoharan Malayalam. The police force and the government of Malaysia was represented by Senior Federal Counsels Lailawati binti Ali and Zurin bt Md Dom.

Proceedings began at 11.30a.m  P.Uthayakumar took the stand and narrated how at the height of the death in police custody cases and police shooting dead of mere suspects cases in and around 2003, the victims of whom were almost all Indians, he was first arrested right at the doorsteps of the Sepang Magistrates Court, thrown into jail and maliciously prosecuted at the very same Sepang Magistrates Courts where the Inquests proceedings of S.Tharmarajah (19) who was killed in the Sepang police custody was being held.

Immediately upon arrest, P.Uthayakumar was forced to strip to his underpants and he was filmed and photographed by the police camera and video crew in full view of a group of ten policemen at the Sepang police station on 16/1/2003. When P.Uthayakumar protested one DSP Amidon bin Adam and another police Chief Inspector shouted “Fuck You” and “Go to hell” at P.Uthayakumar. Thereafter he was sent to spend the night at the Sepang police station lock up overnight.

P.Uthayakumar testified that from the Sepang police station where he was first arrested he was then taken to the Sentul police station with regards to a second  case where one Maliga’s eight year old daughter was raped and eventually her husband was murdered. Despite ten police reports having been lodged the Sentul police (probably in collaboration with the underworld) had refused to offer police protection for this family. The then K.L Police Chief Dell Akhbar Khan had replied in the Press that his policemen cannot be expected to sleep in this widowed Maliga’s house. For championing this case P.Uthayakumar was arrested for the second time.

The third arrest of P.Uthayakumar at the Sentul police station was by the Dang Wangi police in respect of the killing of Vivashanu Pillai who was killed at the Dang Wangi police station and his body thrown into the Klang River by the police. (the police version was that Vivashanu had slipped through his handcuffs, escaped  from police custody and was later found dead in the Klang River just like the case of Francis Udayappan).

For questioning this police crime,  P.Uthayakumar was arrested for the third time.

P.Uthayakumar was prosecuted of criminally intimidating a police Chief Inspector during the said Inquest proceedings of S.Tharmarajen under Section 506 of the Penal Code which carries a maximum jail term of up to seven years jail.

When re examined by his lawyer Manoharan Malayalam P.Uthyakumar replied that this series of police arrests was to deter him from taking up these cases when in every two weeks one person was killed in police lock ups and in every week 1.3 persons were dead shot by the Malaysian police.

The crux of P.Uthayakumar’s testimony at the High Court today was how he had applied to the Sepang Magistrate to have the charges against him dismissed for being groundless. And when the Magistrate had turned down the application P.Uthayakumar had appealed against the said Magistrates decision to the Shah Alam High Court.

Shah Alam High Court Justice Suriyadi Halim Omar upon hearing the appeal by P.Uthayakumar’s lawyers Manoharan Malayalam, Waytha Moorthy and others  had dismissed the criminal charges against him on the grounds of the same being groundless further to Section 173(g) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The Attorney General appealed to the Court of Appeal and a three man bench of the Court of Appeal had also dismissed the Attorney General’s appeal and set P.Uthayakumar free of the said criminal charge.

This was an unprecedented and landmark High Court and Court of Appeal decision in a criminal case in the Malaysian legal history being struck out without even the commencement of the criminal proceedings.

And thus P.Uthayakumar’s testimony in the High Court today that the arrest was unlawful ab initio (from the very beginning) and the criminal prosecution by the Attorney General being malicious.

The proceedings only ended at 6.00p.m when P.Uthayakumar’s lawyer Manoharan Malayalam closed the Plaintif’s case. The police force and the government of Malaysia has four witnesses who would testify on 22/6/2010.