KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 — Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, the eldest daughter of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has joined the thousands who have inked a petition urging the Pakatan Harapan government to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The petition was initiated through change.org by students behind the leaked academic papers presented to the Conference of Rulers on April 2, which allegedly contributed to the government’s decision to renounce the statute.
They argued that ratifying the Rome Statute would provide justice to the 298 people killed when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down some 50km from the Ukraine-Russian border in July 2014.
More than 10,000 people had signed the petition as of 5.30pm.
Marina, along with a few other notable civil society figures, had promoted the petition on Twitter earlier.
Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad: STATUT ROM: KEADILAN UNTUK MANGSA MH 17 - Tandatangani Petisi! https://t.co/ngB5iE54ec via @Change
— Marina Mahathir (@netraKL) 10 April 2019
Dr Mahathir said last Friday that the government was forced to withdraw from the Rome Statute due to political pressure from opponents “who spread unnecessary fear and confusion”.
He also said critics of the Rome Statute wanted to trigger a row between the country’s monarchy and the new government.
Putrajaya’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute led the students to expose a briefing by a group of pro-monarchy academics to the Conference of Rulers.
Gabungan Pembebasan Akademik leader Asheeq Ali Sethi Alivi told Malay Mail yesterday that he and eight others decided to leak the briefing’s executive summary because they felt Putrajaya had failed to address the misinformation surrounding the issue.
In the document, four academics warned the rulers that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) may be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as he is the supreme commander of the country’s armed forces.
The paper was allegedly prepared by Universiti Teknologi Mara’s deputy vice-chancellor and dean of Faculty of Law Prof Datuk Rahmat Mohamad, International Islamic University of Malaysia’s law lecturer Assoc Prof Shamrahayu Ab Aziz, and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia’s law lecturers Fareed Mohd Hassan and Hisham Hanapi.
