Hindraf chief released in Malaysia

HONG KONG: Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader P Uthayakumar was released from police custody in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, without being formally charged.

The firebrand lawyer had been arrested twice on Tuesday, the second time within minutes of his having posted bail for an earlier arrest on sedition charges.

News of Uthayakumar’s release came as a surprise to his lawyers and supporters, who had been waiting in court for him to be produced to face fresh charges.

Under law, the Malaysian police were required to bring formal charges against him within 24 hours of arrest.

A throng of supporters gathered at the remand centre in Kuala Lumpur, from where Uthayakumar, who had mobilised over 10,000 ethnic Indians on November 25 to protest race-based discrimination and economic marginalisation, was released at about 5 pm local time (2.30 pm IST), Hindraf sources told DNA. He was garlanded and cheered, and slogans were raised in his praise.

Hindraf supporters with diyas in hand had also held a vigil outside the remand centre until midnight on Tuesday/Wednesday. Uthayakumar’s lawyer M. Manoharan speculated that police authorities may have been “frightened” by the extent of popular support for the arrested leader, and had therefore released him.

Speaking to supporters and mediapersons immediately after his release, Uthayakumar said he had been questioned in connection with some “seditious” statement he had allegedly made following the arrest of ethnic Indians on November 25, but that he had refused to answer them.

“I told them they were criminals, and that I refuse to answer your questions,”

Uthayakumar said. He added that he would not be intimidated from “speaking the truth” despite the series of sedition charges planned against him.

Earlier on Wednesday, a police team raided Uthayakumar’s office, evidently looking for “seditious material”, and to seize cyberdata from office computers.

Also on Wednesday, the besieged government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi came under pressure from a broad-based coalition of Opposition parties and NGOs to end the crackdown on political dissenters, including leaders of ethnic Indian communities, and open negotiations.

At a press conference, former Deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim read out a joint statement on behalf of the coalition, which called for a meeting with Badawi “to pursue the agenda of national unity and reconciliation among all Malaysians regardless of race and religion, press demands for free and fair elections and work towards resolving the serious problems we face.”

Recent events caused cracks in unity, and civil liberties were being eroded by the crackdown against civil society and political leaders, the statement added.


(Published in DNA dated 13 December 2007)