U-turn on Sosma 'ironic and unprincipled', says Lawyers For Liberty

PETALING JAYA: The government should repeal the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) as it is untenable and makes a mockery of fairness in the criminal justice system, says Lawyers for Liberty director Zaid Malek.

Zaid said there is no reason or justification for the Act to exist when the Criminal Procedure Code, Evidence Act, Penal Code and other laws are adequate to handle the type of cases that are now under Sosma.

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“The new government must uphold the guarantee of life and liberty under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution in the highest regard without compromise or equivocation,” he said in a statement on Wednesday (Dec 14).

Zaid expressed his disappointment in Pakatan Harapan which he said cannot retain and defend Sosma after the coalition voted against it in Parliament while being in the Opposition earlier this year.

“Despite being in office for less than a week, the new government backtracking on (repealing) such a draconian law as Sosma is a matter of grave concern.

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“Are there more such U-turns and back-sliding on the rule of law and human rights to come?

“We are disappointed and appalled that the Pakatan-led government will not review this draconian act, which facilitates custodial and other serious human rights abuses as well as long-term detention pending trial without bail.

“Has Pakatan so quickly forgotten the horrors of unlawful and arbitrary detention under Sosma when peaceful protest leaders and 1MDB scandal critics were detained by the old Barisan Nasional regime in order to silence them?

“It is this very same law which the new government now staunchly defends,” he pointed out.

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On Tuesday (Dec 13), Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail stated that the government has no intention of reviewing Sosma.

“The fact that detention under Sosma is 'only 28 days', as Saifuddin argues, does not change the fact that it is an unreasonably long period of detention without judicial oversight that is in effect punishing alleged offenders before they have even had their day in court.

“Beyond the 28 days of remand, detainees who are later charged with offences may also be detained indefinitely pending trial.

“Even if they are acquitted at trial, they can be further detained pending appeals at the Court of Appeal or Federal Court.

“In short, persons arrested under Sosma may spend many long years in jail although they are finally found innocent and acquitted,” he said.

He expressed his shock at how Pakatan changed its position once it was in power by saying there was no need to review Sosma.