Malaysia trial tests new security law
(Al Jazeera) – Some 30 people, 27 of them Filipinos, will go on trial in early January in a specially-converted hall in Sabah’s state prison complex to face charges of “waging war” against Malaysia’s King, in what is set to be the most significant test yet of the country’s newest security law.
The accused were detained in the wake of a surprise attack almost a year ago on the sleepy villages around the town of Lahad Datu in Sabah on the Malaysian part of Borneo, after an armed group of about 200 people from the self-styled Royal Sulu Army arrived in boats from the Philippines, claiming the land for the Manila-based national Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram III.
After a three week standoff, and amid accusations the government had been slow to respond, Malaysian forces bombed the villages from the air and began a ground offensive that left scores of attackers dead, along with 10 of their own men.
“It’s a cross border situation and very challenging,” lawyer N Sivananthan, who was hired by the Philippine government to represent their citizens, told Al Jazeera in an interview ahead of the trial. “They all face the death penalty; that’s the pressure point. Nevertheless, it’s going to be interesting to see how the court views SOSMA and how it’s going to find a balance between the purpose of the law and the need for a fair trial.”
SOSMA, or the Special Offences (Special Measures) Act, was passed in 2012 to replace Malaysia’s Internal Security Act and Emergency Ordinance, which allowed for detention without trial. It was designed, “for the purpose of maintaining public order and security and for connected matters,” according to the legislation’s opening preamble.
Those on trial, including the Sultan’s nephew, Datu Amirbahar Kiram, were detained in the days and weeks following the incident, as the Malaysian authorities sought to tighten security and the state’s notoriously porous borders. Sivananthan says his clients were not involved in the conflict and were simply, “in the wrong place, at the wrong time.” He notes that while police did confiscate a number of machetes, they found no guns on any of the accused.
