Better known as Tian Chua (left), he told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that he was also barred from speaking freely to members of his family.“I was told to confine the conversation to the conditions of the cell, the food, and my health,” he told judge Lau Bee Lan.
He said he was explicitly told not to divulge questions asked by interrogators and the methods they used, or the security measures at the detention centre.
Chua, then the Keadilan vice-president, said he was threatened with punishment if he disobeyed, although the penalty was never specified.
During his detention, Chua only managed to meet his family once for 45 minutes, but only under close scrutiny.
“One of my interrogators sat in between us, he interjected from time to time to prevent us from talking about the situation of detention or political development outside,” he said
At the time, he had been detained for two months for alleged involvement in militant activities, following which a two-year detention order was imposed on him.
He is among the plaintiffs in a civil suit brought by a group of ex-ISA detainees against the government and then inspector-general of police Norian Mai.
The other plaintiffs are Hishamuddin Rais, Saari Sungib, Badaruddin Ismail and Badrulamin Bahrom.
They were arrested in relation to the ‘Black 14’ rally which took place on April 14, 2001, to commemorate the second anniversary of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s conviction for abuse of power.
The ex-detainees also claim that the IGP allegedly defamed them by telling the press that they were militants plotting to overthrow the government by force.
When asked by his counsel Ho Kok Yew on how Chua felt during his interrogations, he said that he was “in constant fear” as a result of being repeatedly threatened.
“During the interrogations, I was repeatedly told to cooperate and answer all questions failing which the team of interrogators, who were all Chinese, would be changed to a team of Malay interrogators who would not be as ‘nice’ as the present team of interrogators.
“I was told that a Malay team would inflict physical harm on me as the Malays did not like me for offending their public sensitivity,” he said.
He added that he was denied legal representation despite repeated requests for it “from Day One.”
However, Chua said that despite a detention order from then Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi saying that he allegedly threatened the national security of Malaysia, he said that he was never questioned on the matter, and all questions posed to him were political.
The questions included the opposition’s strategy for the Lunas and Teluk Kemang by-elections, his political views, and the identity of the webmasters of various pro-Reformasi websites.
‘Only chaos when police used force’
Earlier today, senior federal counsels Nor Mastura Ayub and Iznan Ishak cross-examined Badaruddin, who was the last of the 10 detained under ISA in April 2001.
When asked by Nor Mastura whether the many demonstrations around the time of his arrest caused chaos, Badaruddin (right) said he observed that there was only chaos when police used force.“If the police did not use force, then there is no chaos,” he said.
However, he agreed with Nor Mastura’s suggestion that the demonstration’s organisers did not have a police permit, which led to the police’s actions.
He had earlier testified that he observed almost every demonstration since 1998 as a member of human rights watchdog Suaram.
Meanwhile, Iznan attempted to discredit Badaruddin’s claim that he was defamed by Norian by pointing out that the news clippings at the time did not mention him as a militant.
Under re-examination, Badaruddin said that although the articles, which were published before his arrest, did not mention him, it does say that there would be further arrests in relation to the alleged militant activities.
“In other words, my arrest is connected to the press statement by IGP Norian Mai,” he said.
The trial enters its seventh day tomorrow with Chua’s cross-examination.
No comments:
Post a Comment