KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 — Authorities must free over 140 minors currently detained under the Prevention of Crime Act (Poca) that permits them to be held without trial, said Suaram and Suhakam today.
In a joint press conference here, the two human rights organisations reminded authorities that Poca and other preventive detention laws had been introduced with the express promise that these would only be used for national security threats and organised crime.
“How hardcore are 16- and 17-year-olds?” Suaram executive director D. Sevan was quoted as saying by the Malaysiakini news portal.
“If they are suspected murderers, arrest them and apply the law on them in court, do not use Poca.”
He also questioned why such laws were being applied to minors and urged the government to swiftly release these detainees.
Citing previous parliamentary replies, the two groups said that many minors were held using the Poca under suspicion of committing ordinary crimes such as theft and being in possession of stolen property.
Existing provisions under the Penal Code were more than adequate for such offences, they added.
Sevan then urged authorities to review the investigating officers who invoked the Poca for such offences, saying that applying detention without trial for incidents that were clearly not security issues smacked of abuse.
“Why are the police so lazy to investigate and just arrest (and detain) the children?” Selvan was further quoted as saying.
The Poca is a 1959 law that was modified and expanded in 2014 after the Barisan Nasional government at the time repealed the Internal Security Act.
It was among several pieces of legislation including the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) and the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act that allowed the police to continue using detention without trial following the abolition of the ISA, albeit in a more limited manner.
While the government then had assured the people that such laws would only be used for specific threats to national security, these have been applied to politicians and activists in a manner that has invited suspicions of continued abuse.
