Sunday 9 December 2007

The Sunday Freedom Walk: 8 arrested

Updates;

Nine (9) persons, including five (5) lawyers, nabbed at Human Rights walk; eight (8) from Bersih/Yellow March arrested.

AhiruDin Attan (rock'sbru) posted this to me and I thought it’d be a good idea I put it here cus he gave the name of the eighth person arrested. His lawyer, Edmund Bon, was also nabbed by the police making the total number of arrests to date to nine.

Rocky's Bru said...

Kak Ton,

That individual who was arrested in front of the Bar Council is one Ashraf. I bumped into him during the walk. Very emotional, teary-eyed chap. Don't know what's his story but he seemed harmless, except for the din he was creating.

Go to Shanghai Fish for his pictures. Zorro was calming him down; perhaps he will blog about Ashraf later.

Kak Ton, my lawyer Edmund Bon was also arrested, some hours later. He was said to have prevented City Hall workers from doing their job. The City Hall workers were trying to pull down posters at the Bar Council building.

The posters were there to mark World Human Rights Day (celebrated globally tomorrow, 10 Dec).

Meeeeeee Rebus!


4:29:00 PM

=====================================================

Earlier posting:

The police have arrested eight people, including five lawyers, for failing to disperse after warnings were issued to stop a march from the Sogo department store to Central Market in Kuala Lumpur, according to Malaysiakini.

The march, held to mark the International Human Rights Day on 10 December 2007, was intended to start from the Sogo department store to Central Market, was stopped at a halfway point by the police.

Those arrested have been taken to the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters.

The eight arrested are:
Sivarasa Rasiah (Arrested at Jalan Tun Perak)
N. Surendran (Arrested at Jalan Tun Perak)
Amer Hamzah (Arrested at Jalan Tun Perak)
Eric Paulsen (Arrested at Jalan Tun Perak)
Anthony Andu (Arrested at Jalan Tun Perak)
Noorazah Othman (Arrested at Jalan Tun Perak)
Latheefa Koya (Arrested at Jalan Tun Perak)
One individual arrested in front of Bar Council building
Source: Bangkitnet

The number of police and media personnel far outnumbered the number of marchers, says Nuraina Samad

Shar 101.....masked from the haze or zipped from speaking ?
The banner says it all

Zorro lending a shoulder to Ashraf Ali Raja, one of the eight people arrested

Dang Wangi Deputy OCPD Supt Che Hamzah Che Ismail said they were arrested under Section 27 (5) of the Police Act 1967 for illegal assembly, according to Bernama.

A group of 50 people including lawyers, activists, bloggers and members of non-governmental organisations started gathering in front of the shopping complex since 7.30am.

This small group have undertaken this march after the Bar Council had cancelled its annual march in conjunction with the International Human Rights Day celebration - which falls tomorrow, Dec 10, due to pressure to obtain a police permit.

Yesterday, the police had warned he public not to participate in the march given that no permit had been issued for the gathering.

“As no permit has been issued for the gathering, those who take
part in it can be charged under Section 27(5) of the Police Act 1967
for participating in an illegal assembly,” said OCPD Supt Che Hamzah.

Meanwhile, Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenavasan said she was disappointed with the police for detaining the eight people.

She said the people should be given the freedom to assemble peacefully.

"I believe it would have been a peaceful march if not for the police presence," she said.

Ambiga was seen at the entrance to the Kuala Lumpur police contingent headquarters at about 10.30am presumably to negotiate the release of the eight people detained.

However, she was denied entry as police did not want her to interfere with investigations.

Also read:
Nuraina A. Samad's Sunday Human Rights Walk: here,
rocky'sbru' Walking with 500 cops: here
Tony Yew's A Walk too far... here
jeffooi's Cops outnumber People: 5 to 1. here

Pictures: Courtesy of Nuraina A. Samad and ShanghaiFish
For professional photographs go to Suzanne Lee: here

8 comments:

Rockybru said...

Kak Ton,
That individual who was arrested in front of the Bar Council is one Ashraf. I bumped into him during the walk. Very emotional, teary-eyed chap. Don't know what's his story but he seemed harmless, except for the din he was creating.

Go to Shanghai Fish for his pictures. Zorro was calming him down; perhaps he will blog about Ashraf later.

Kak Ton, my lawyer Edmund Bon was also arrested, some hours later. He was said to have prevented City Hall workers from doing their job. The City Hall workers were trying to pull down posters at the Bar Council building.

The posters were there to mark World Human Rights Day (celebrated globally tomorrow, 10 Dec).

Meeeeeee Rebus!

Elviza said...

Kak Ton,

I went to college with Amir Hamzah Arshad. We met again in practice.

He was an excellent student. I think he scored straight As for his Advance Levels.

Amir that I know is always firm in what he believes in. That explains his being said to be one of the nation's most prominent young lawyers.

Trust me, if this is the same Amir whom I know years ago, he will not harm anyone.

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

yea, i saw ashraf on tv. and hey rocks, i saw you too, standing behind the chief police guy.

maria a samad (kak ton) said...

Rocky : sorry to hear of the arrest of the nine people, including Edmund.

So what's the latest?

maria a samad (kak ton) said...

Elviza: I believe you.

I am sure it was not the intention of Amir Hamzah to hurt anyone by taking part in the walk.

I think the same goes for all those marchers. No malice intended. Only a walk in solidarity to mark Human Rights Day.

maria a samad (kak ton) said...

Kerp dear,

Sorry to disappoint you.

It wasnt me you saw. I didnt go for the morning stroll.

Pelanduk dua serupa, kut.

orang lama said...

Jeffooi: cops outnumber 5 to 1 and nuraina says "the number of police and media personnel far outnumbered the number of marchers."

What a shame! What a waste of manpower when the police could have been deployed for more useful duties!

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

sorry aunty, i meant it was our brother, rocky standing behind the cop.