Suaram Condemns Another Ambush Arrest Of Ums Student

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Suaram has condemned another arrest involving a Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) student activist earlier today, highlighting that it was the sixth case in the past four months.
Describing it as “ambush arrest”, Suaram executive director Azura Nasron said undergraduate Sudirman Arshad was allegedly detained under the Sedition Act and Section 509 of the Penal Code earlier today.
This comes despite prior arrangements that Sudirman would present himself for questioning on Nov 1.
He was eventually released after being questioned for more than five hours at the Kota Kinabalu district police headquarters.
ADS“In just four months, six student activists, including Sudirman, have been arrested in circumstances marked by due-process breaches or disproportionate tactics.
“These include closed-door attempts by the Special Branch to extract unlawful ‘intelligence statements’ after statements were taken, when the students had voluntarily presented themselves under Section 111 of the Criminal Procedure Code to give statements for other investigations,” she said in a statement today.
According to student group Suara UMS, Sudirman had presented himself today at the Kota Kinabalu police district headquarters to give a statement to the Traffic Investigations and Enforcement Department.
However, Sudirman was claimed to have been suddenly cornered and interrogated by several police officers for his alleged involvement in the Gempur Rasuah Sabah 2.0 in June.
Disregarding rule of law
Unimpressed, Azura said the arrests had discredited the government's claims of supporting freedom of assembly and the Federal Court ruling in July that Section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act, which requires protesters to give notification to the police, was unconstitutional.
She also described the police’s actions as demonstrating “a sustained disregard for the rule of law,” highlighting how the authorities had also conducted prior arrests at homes and workplaces without demonstrated necessity.
“Whilst we note Sudirman’s release, we demand that the Sedition Act and Section 509 investigation be dropped immediately.
“The police must also cease using the Sedition Act and relevant Penal Code provisions to police assembly-related expression,” Azura added.
‘Not arrested’
Kota Kinabalu police chief Kasim Muda dismissed claims that Sudirman was arrested earlier.
He claimed that Sudirman was merely called in to give a statement in relation to a sedition investigation involving an anti-corruption rally in June.
ADS“That’s slander. No arrest was made. We only recorded his statement on the orders of the deputy public prosecutor,” Free Malaysia Today reported him as saying.
Last month, several students from UMS were allegedly arrested under the Sedition Act during a vigil for 13-year-old bullying victim, Zara Qairina Mahathir.
On Sept 2, a female UMS student was grilled for more than five hours, where she was also demanded a follow-up “intelligible statement”, despite no existing legal provisions for the police to pursue such actions.
In August, another student also faced prolonged questioning under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act, where his mobile phone and SIM card were confiscated, allegedly in connection with a comment he posted on Sabah governor Musa Aman’s Facebook page.
In June, three Sabah student activists were also arrested over their involvement in the Gempur Rasuah Sabah 2.0, and were eventually released on police bail. - Mkini

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