KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 — The High Court’s dismissal today of PKR Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad’s remand order was a missed opportunity for the judiciary to clamp down on alleged “political persecution” of opposition politicians and government dissenters, said lawyer Eric Paulsen.

The Lawyers for Liberty executive director claimed that it was clear that Nik Nazmi is a victim of allegedly government-sanctioned persecution of its opponents, especially since the police have done little since they detained the PKR politician over his role in last Saturday’s #KitaLawan rally.

“The police hadn’t even done the most basic of things like take his statement,” Paulsen told Malay Mail Online when contacted.

“Instead, Nik Nazmi said he was just hanging around the police station the entire time,” he added.

Paulsen said that the High Court could have sent “a strong message to the police that they cannot engage in this kind of political persecution” had it decided to overrule the magistrate’s decision to allow the police to detain the Seri Setia assemblyman.

Nik Nazmi’s counsel, Melissa Sasidaran, confirmed that police have opened investigations under Section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 and Section 143 of the Penal Code.

“According to the police, he is a repeat offender as an organiser,” she said when contacted.

On Saturday, thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Kuala Lumpur in support of Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was handed a five-year jail sentence last month for sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008.

Police had previously issued a warning that the rally, headlined as #KitaLawan, was unlawful, as its organisers had failed to follow the conditions laid out in the Peaceful Assembly Act.