Day: July 19, 2017

10 missing men held under Sosma, says lawyer

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: FMT News

PETALING JAYA: Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) representative Latheefa Koya has confirmed that the 10 men from the nine families who lodged missing persons reports yesterday are currently being held under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).

Latheefa said 30 families attended a special briefing today, in which they were told that their loved ones were being held under Sosma.

This included the nine families who lodged reports yesterday.

“This is an abuse of Sosma, which is meant to deal with terrorism and not ordinary crimes like gangsterism,” Latheefa said. Read more →

Too easy to access porn, says child rights activist

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: FMT News 

PETALING JAYA: A child rights activist has urged parents to play a bigger role in filtering their children’s search engines at home.

Voice of Children executive director Sharmila Sekaran said this was important as currently it was “too easy” for children to access pornography on the internet.

“Children are very vulnerable, they are still at an age where they are learning and forming ideas and it’s important for them to know the difference between pornography and sex in real life,” she told FMT. Read more →

Government appeal against Maria Chin’s acquittal to be heard on Oct 11

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: FMT News 

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court will determine if it is within its jurisdiction to hear the government’s appeal against the acquittal of Bersih chairman Maria Chin Abdullah for an offence under the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA).

Government lawyer Hamdan Hamzah said the apex court had jurisdiction because it involved a constitutional matter.

However, Maria’s lawyer M Puravalen said since the matter came from the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur, the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear the case.

A five-man bench chaired by Chief Justice Raus Sharif has now fixed Oct 11 to hear the case. Read more →

Scorpene: Apandi urged to cooperate with French investigators

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: FMT News 

PETALING JAYA: Anti-graft activist Cynthia Gabriel today called on Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali to offer his full cooperation to French investigators who have charged two former top executives in a probe into alleged kickbacks from the 2002 US$1.1 billion sale of two Scorpene submarines to Malaysia.

Cynthia, who leads the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4), said the 15-year-old Scorpene case could be solved speedily if Putrajaya gave its cooperation.

Apandi, she said, should abide by the United Nations Convention Against Corruption which Malaysia had signed.

“The convention provides for its signatories to cooperate to stamp out cross-border corruption,” she told FMT. Read more →

Suaram hails indictments in French Scorpene probe

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: FMT News

PETALING JAYA: Human rights NGO Suaram, which in 2009 filed a suit against a French defence company over irregularities in the sale of two Scorpene-class submarines to Malaysia, today welcomed the French investigators’ decision to indict two former top executives involved in the deal.

 Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy said that after such a long time without any development in the case, the NGO was cheered by the latest news.

“We have waited a long time. This is definitely what we have been hoping for, if the case proceeds. Malaysians have the right to know what happened,” he told FMT. Read more →

Suhakam urges Putrajaya intervention in Kelantan’s public caning plan

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: The Malay Mail Online

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 — The federal government has a duty to ensure that human rights are preserved in every state of the federation, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) said when denouncing Kelantan’s move to make canings public.

Calling such punishments inhuman and degrading, the commission said that caning should not be practised regardless of whether it is prescribed in the civil or Islamic courts.

“Caning in any setting violates the absolute prohibition of torture under international law and is absolutely prohibited by the international human rights treaties that Malaysia has acceded to,” it said in a statement. Read more →

More Muslim women seeking divorce because of abuse, SIS reveals

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: The Malay Mail Online 

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 ― More Muslim women are initiating divorce from their husbands due to domestic violence, according to cases handled by Sisters in Islam’s (SIS) legal service.

Telenisa, a free legal service by the Muslim women’s rights group for both women and men, said almost half of the divorce cases it handled last year were “fasakh”, a method of divorce which is initiated by the wife.

According to Telenisa, 62 of its clients (47 per cent) sought “fasakh” last year, up from 27 clients in 2015. A total of 66 clients sought “fasakh” in 2014.

“Fasakh” has become the most opted type of divorce application by women as they generally become more aware of their rights within marriage.

“Consistently high numbers of domestic violence cases reported in our Telenisa statistics also show ‘fasakh’ as the most obvious type of divorce to institute,” the Telenisa team told Malay Mail Online in an interview. Read more →