Apcet suit: RM30,000 each for activists
(Free Malaysia Today) – The government was ordered to pay 29 human rights activists and journalists who were wrongfully detained by police after Umno Youth members disrupted the 1996 Apcet II civil society gathering a sum of RM30,000 each by the High Court today.
The total of RM870,000 in general damages were ordered to be paid with interest to the group who filed a RM87million suit against the government in 1998 for wrongful detention by the police.
Appeals Court Judge Wan Adnan Muhamad who delivered his decision said: “The facts here are clear and straightforward and the judgment is based on facts submitted by both parties.”
The suit was filed two years after the group’s wrongful detention on Nov 11, 1996 when about 400 members of an Umno Youth-led Malaysian People’s Action Front broke down the doors of the conference halls, threw chairs and verbally and physically abused the participants at a hotel here.
The police who only intervened an hour after the incident had arrested the conference participants instead of the mobsters.
