Bersih: PAS pledges free legal service ‘all the way’
(Harakah Daily) – PAS Youth’s Law and Human Rights Unit has pledged free legal representation to anyone arrested for the charge of illegal assembly during the upcoming Bersih rally next month.
“We will give legal representation to those detained from the moment of their arrest up to the appeal process in the highest courts, free of charge,” said its chairman Ahmad Zamri Asa’ad Khuzami.
In a response to a threat by deputy Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar that police would make “preventive arrests” of those behind the rally, Zamri said the statement only revealed Khalid’s ignorance about Article 10 of the Federal Constitution.
“We sympathise with Malaysians who have to put up with a deputy police chief who is ignorant of the law and who does not understand the people’s basic right which is fundamental in a democracy,” Zamri said.
Zamri said Malaysians must stand firm to defend their rights and not be cowed by threats, and urged the public to join the 2.00 pm rally on July 9 in Kuala Lumpur.
The rally is the second major rally called by the electoral reform group Bersih after its 2007 rally attended by more than 50,000 people in the capital.
Earlier, UMNO’s sister organisation Perkasa said its supporters would hold another gathering to “clash” with rally participants. Both groups have also lodged more than 400 police reports calling on police to stop the rally saying such street protests would disrupt businesses.
However, in a break from its own stand against street demonstration, UMNO Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin announced that his men would join Perkasa in expressing support for the current electoral system opposed by Bersih.
Meanwhile, Juham said any attempt to make “preventive arrests” would go against basic principles of the criminal justice system.
“Does such a statement (by police to make preventive arrests) mean that the police will invoke the Internal Security Act to detain innocent people?” asked Zamri.
He said as the guardian of public interest, Khalid should not have made such a threat.
Saying people have the right to peaceful assembly, Zamri said the police had no right to arrest them unless they were involved in crime.
He added that even Section 27 of the Police Act was aimed at ensuring peace during a gathering and not to deny people’s right to gather.
