Manoharan fails to win freedom

(NST) PUTRAJAYA: Lawyer M. Manoharan, who was elected Kota Alam Shah assemblyman while under ISA detention, will remain in the Kamunting camp.

He failed to convince the Federal Court yesterday that he should be freed to serve his constituents.

This is his second attempt in the apex court to set aside the home minister's two-year detention order under the Internal Security Act. He has been held since Dec 13, 2007.

Manoharan, one of the five Hindu Rights Action Force leaders, was held under the preventive law for his alleged involvement in street demonstrations and issuing slanderous statements against the government.

His first habeas corpus application, filed in December 2007, to seek freedom was dismissed by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur in February last year and affirmed by the apex court three months later.

Manoharan had filed a second application, on May 30 last year, to challenge the decision of the advisory board which had confirmed his detention but did not inform him of it. He said he had a right to be told about the decision of the board.

The High Court in Ipoh dismissed the application last September. The Federal Court is scheduled to hear the appeal next month.

Manoharan filed a third application last August on grounds that his election as assemblyman proved he was not a threat to national security.

Federal Court judge Datuk Nik Hashim Nik Abdul Rahman, who delivered oral judgment yesterday, said Manoharan should have raised the argument (that he was not a threat to national security) when he made the second application.

Nik Hashim, who sat with Datuk Seri S. Augustine Paul and Datuk Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, said the apex court had dismissed the appeal because the facts were similar to points raised before another Federal Court last year.

Counsel A. Srimurugan, submitted that Manoharan's election as assemblyman proved he could not be a threat to national security.

"His continued detention is null and void," he said.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Najib Zakaria, who represented the home minister, argued that the appeal should be dismissed as the legality of Manoharan's detention had been decided by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh.