Kuala Lumpur, 17 January 2008
PSM Chairperson, Dr. Nasir Hashim was charged with nine others at the Kuala Lumpur Sections Court at Jalan Duta today. All those charged, pleaded not guilty and was released on police bail RM1,000 each. The hearing has been fixed for 23 to 26 June this year.
T. Saravanan bailed out Dr. Nasir while Lawyer Amer Hamzah and Latheefa Koya represented him. Also charged today were PAS leaders including PAS treasurer Dr Hatta Ramli, Central committee member Dr Lo’Lo’ Ghazali and PAS Women wing leader Nuridah Mohd Salleh.
Surprisingly , PSM’s Secretary General S. Arutchelvan and Treasurer A. Sivarajan was not charged today. There is no indication if they will be charged later. According to Arutchelvan, “ the charges may be dropped as when we were arrested, there were only two of us there, how can two people make up an assemble ?”. Another possibility is that the duo were arrested by the policemen from Cheras whereas rest of those charged today were arrested by policemen from Sentul.
Meanwhile another activist, Norazimah Mohd Noor was charged under Section 504 of the Penal Code with intentionally provoking a high ranking police officer on the same day. She was released with a bail of RM 800. Her charge was so bizarre as it read that she was provoking a police officer to act in a manner which would endanger public order.
On December 11th, 26 people were arrested along Jalan Parlimen when they were on their way to submit a BERSIH memorandum to the Parliament on the constitutional amendment to extend the retirement age of election commissioners.
Last month also saw many activist including lawyers being arrested and charged for illegal assemble in a crackdown to stop people from holding demonstration agains the Government.