Deported Imran seeks compensation

The Hindraf Makkal Sakti’s lawyer wants to donate the money to a charity of his choice.

EXCLUSIVE - FMT

GEORGE TOWN: Hindraf Makkal Sakti’s lawyer Imran Khan has demanded compensation from the Malaysian government for refusing him entry into the country last Friday.

And he wants to donate the compensation to a charity.
In a strongly-worded letter yesterday to the Malaysian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, the British solicitor also demanded a written apology from the government for his enforced departure.

He has demanded a written explanation on why he was deported when he arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang at 1.50pm last Friday.

He also demanded in writing that the government rescind its decision to refuse him entry and allow him to enter Malaysia in future.

Imran, who has never visited Malaysia before, described his experience at KLIA as “humiliating” because he was treated as if he had done something wrong.

“I am demanding compensation for the inconvenience caused to me.

“I want the compensation to be donated to a charity of my choice,” Imran said in the letter, which he described as “an official complaint of my treatment in the strongest terms”.

‘Deplorable decision’

Imran, who was never refused entry into any country before, however, did not specify the quantum of the compensation.

He described his deportation as a “deplorable decision” which interfered with the basic right of every individual to seek legal redress.

He said that the deportation would affect his travels to other countries and interfere with his legal practice.

Imran, an internationally-renowned British human rights lawyer, left KLIA for London on an Emirates Airline flight at 2am last Saturday – 12 hours after Malaysian immigration authorities refused him entry.

London-based Hindraf supremo P Waythamoorthy claimed that the authorities had deemed Imran as “a threat to Malaysia’s security”.

Throughout his ordeal, Imran, who was originally scheduled to leave Malaysia on Aug 18, was kept at the immigration checkpoint.

Imran’s colleague, Suresh Grover, who was allowed entry, has confirmed that legal action will be pursued.

Imran and Suresh were scheduled to be here for a week to meet potential clients among the local Indian community to be considered as co-claimants in a US$4 trillion civil class suit against the former British colonial master.

They have also planned to collect more historical evidence in Malaysia to strengthen the Hindraf’s suit.

‘Prohibited immigrant’

With Imran’s enforced departure, Suresh addressed a Hindraf forum pertaining to the suit in Klang last Sunday.

Some 1,500 people attended the event, which could well see the return of the human rights movement as the ultimate socio-political force among ethnic Indians.

Waythamoorthy originally filed the class action suit on Aug 31, 2007, the 50th anniversary of Malaysia’s independence, against the United Kingdom at the London courts.

However, it was stalled following the Malaysian government’s clampdown on Hindraf and the arrest of its lawyers under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA).

The suit was to demand compensation for Indian Malaysians whose ancestors were brought in by the colonial government as indentured labour.

The suit claimed that, after granting independence to Malaya, the British had left the Indians without representation and at the mercy of Malay extremism practised by the Umno government.

In his letter, which was both posted and faxed to the Malaysian High Commission office at Belgrave Square in London, Imran said he came to understand from press reports in Malaysia that the Malaysian government decided to refuse him entry, claiming that he was a prohibited immigrant.

Doing a ‘Bourdon’

He said he only knew about his “prohibited immigrant” status upon his arrival at Dubai Airport in his transit return flight to London.

He added that he was never given any reasons by the immigration authorities at KLIA for the deportation.
He claimed that even the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur was never told the reasons when it enquired from Malaysian immigration authorities about their action.

“I have done nothing before that could warrant my being considered a prohibited immigrant,” said Imran.
Imran’s ordeal confirmed Hindraf’s fear that the government would do a “Bourdon” on Imran and Suresh.
French human rights lawyer William Bourdon was deported by the government when he was here to give a speech pertaining to the billion-dollar Scorpene submarine scandal last month.

Waythamoorthy said the ban on Imran showed Umno government’s fear that its oppression, suppression, discrimination and marginalisation of ethnic Indians would be exposed in the international forum.

“It’s a shame that the government had embarrassed a prominent human rights lawyer without valid reasons,” he told FMT.