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KUALA LUMPUR: Six Chinese nationals detained by the police for alleged online gambling claimed today that they were not subject to Malaysia’s prevention laws.
Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, representing the six men, told Judicial Commissioner Azhar Abdul Hamid in High Court that the Crime Prevention Act (Poca) used against them was “limited to Malaysians only.”
“There is no doubt that La Poca was promulgated based on articles 149 and 151 of the Federal Constitution, which grant powers to Parliament to legislate laws against actions harmful to public order, including preventive detentions.
“We would like to point out that under section 151 (1) (b), the law is clearly limited to our citizens. It cannot be extended beyond that, ”he said during the discussion on a habaes corpus request from the six.
He said that, in a normal situation, a detainee could represent himself before the Advisory Board, and the board would have to present his representation within three months to Yang di-Pertuan Agong for consideration.
The six, Jiang Xiang, Wang Jun Cheng, Li Jiang, Luo Hong Bin, Lei Meng and Yu Xiang Yu, claimed that their detention was illegal.
They were arrested by the police in October and held in preventive detention for 59 days starting on November 23.
Gobind also told the court that Poca’s ordinance – the Crime Prevention (Identity Card) Regulations – could not be applied against the six because they do not possess identity cards.
“This is an interesting regulation, which requires detainees to have special identification cards or ‘brown cards’ that identify them as persons registered in Poca.
“We would say this cannot be used on all six men because ‘identity cards’ as defined in Regulation 11 (1) refer to our ICs,” he said.
In response, the top federal attorney for the Interior Ministry, Zulkifli Abdullah, told the court that Poca also applied to non-Malaysians.
“There is nothing in the preamble to Poca that says the law cannot be used against non-citizens,” he said.
This prompted Judicial Commissioner Azhar to ask Zulkifli if the government was taking the position that only Malaysians could submit complaints to the Advisory Council.
“Are you saying that only Malaysians can make their statements to the board?” Azhar asked, adding that Poca and its statutes were promulgated through provisions of the Federal Constitution.
Zulkifli replied in the affirmative, adding that this was based on a “literal reading” of Poca and its statutes.
Azhar then asked Zulkifli if the non-Malaysian detainees could seek legal recourse, but the lead federal attorney said Poca did not intend to exclude non-Malaysians.
“Article 151 (1) (b) should not be read in isolation in that way and should be read in conjunction with other provisions,” Zulkifli said.
The court set January 22 for its decision on whether to release the six men.
Chinese citizens were also represented by lawyers Jacky Loi and Haijan Omar, while Mohamad Safuan Azhar, Adilah Roslan and Norazlin Mohamad Yusoff appeared for the Interior Ministry.
“I think both parties have interesting points that have not been raised in court,” Azhar added.
