Urgent Appeal Update (4): Eight JERIT Activists have been released!
suaram
SUARA RAKYAT
MALAYSIA
Address: 433A, Jalan 5/46,
Gasing Indah, 46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Telephone: +6 03
7784
3525
Fax: +6 03 7784 3526
Email: suaram@suaram.
net
Web: www.suaram.net
Urgent Appeal
Update (4): 10 December 2008
Eight JERIT
Activists have been released!
Two JERIT activists who have been arrested by the police in Taiping yesterday were released on police bail about 5.40pm. Those were Yong Chat Wah and Ooi Choon Nam, both 22. They were arrested for leafleting the JERIT bicycle campaign leaflet.
While, 6 others including MP Sungai Siput Dr. Jayakumar Devaraj were released by the IPD Kuala Kangsar on police bail at about 7.45pm and told to report back to the police station on Dec 23. They were for questioning the police who was taking Identity Cards from the cyclists.
We thank all for your
kind attention. We also would like to urge all the concern civil societies to
continuously send protest letter to the Inspector General of Police to stop the
intimidation against the cyclist and the activists in Malaysia.
The Released are:
1. Ooi
Choon Nam (IPD
Taiping)
2. Yong Chat Wah (IPD
Taiping)
3. Dr. Jayakumar Devaraj (IPD Kuala Kangsar)
4. Rani Rasiah (IPD Kuala Kangsar)
5. Jothi (IPD Kuala Kangsar)
6. Sugumaran (IPD Kuala Kangsar)
7. Karthik (IPD Kuala Kangsar)
8. S Vasu Rao, 49.
Background
JERIT or Oppressed People's Movement is
organizing a cycling campaign throughout the nation to put forward six demands
to the Prime Minister of Malaysia. The campaign officially began on the 3rd
December at Wisma Darul Aman Kedah. 50 cyclists have been flagged off from Wisma
Darul Aman and they would cycle for sixteen days through Kedah, Penang, Perak, and Selangor. On 18th December they will
handover a memorandum to the Prime Minister in Parliament.
4 December: A volunteer of the
campaign, Ruben s/o Loganathan has been arrested at Merbau Pulas, Kedah,
for leafleting leaflets containing demands of JERIT's Bicycle campaign, but
released under police bail on the same day.
5 December: Teluk Kumbar police had
stopped the cyclist of JERIT cycle campaign from leafleting in Teluk Kumbar,
Penang.
6 December: 16 Activist has been arrested in Skudai Johor.
9 December: 8 individuals have been arrested on the seventh day of the JERIT cycle campaign. One of the female JERIT activists, Helen Mary Johnson has been molested and punched on the face by a police officer while she was taking photographs. Another JERIT activist Lee Huat Seng’s Lee Huat Seng's camera was confisticated and in the process the police hurt him in the arm.
Released By,
Nalini.E
SUARAM
Coordinator
SAMPLE
LETTER
[Letterhead of your organisation]
Inspector-General of
Police
Tan Sri Musa Hassan
Ibu Pejabat Polis Diraja Malaysia,
50560
Bukit Aman,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: +603 2262 6015
Fax: +603 2272
5613
Dear Sir,
Re:
Stop Intimidation by the police against the Cyclist and the
activists
We are writing to you, once again, to express our outrage
and our strongest condemnation over your government's ongoing crackdown on
freedom of expression. a fundamental right which is guaranteed under the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.
We demand the Malaysian government to allow the cyclist to continue cycling and
practice their freedom of expression as stated in Federal
Constitution.
We are appalled by your government and the police's latest
actions and view this as yet another attempt by your government to intimidate
Malaysian citizens from participating in any form of public assembly and
exercising their freedom to express their views.
We further demand that
your government stops the assault on freedom of expression.
We strongly
urge you, once again, to stop bringing shame to Malaysia, a member of the United
Nations Human Rights Council. We would like to remind you that freedom of
expression is guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as
the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.
Yours sincerely,
[Name]