RELEASE IMMEDIATELY THE "Three held under Emergency Ordinance"

The law states that a person arrested must be brought before a Magistrate within 24 hours...

Further detention for the reason of completing investigation is only if there is an order of the Magistrate

The maximum length of time that one person can be detained by the police after arrest is 14 days..

After that, the police must release the said person.

The person could, of course, be before the expiry of 14 days or any time thereafter be charged in court..

If a person claims trial, then he will be entitled to BAIL unless in very limited circumstances.

It is very wrong for the police to suddenly use some Detention Without Trial Law - like the Internal Security Act(ISA) or the Emergency Public Order and Prevention of Crime Ordinance (which is most likely the ordinance referred to in the news-report below) just like that to now keep a person detained for more than 14 days ..... i.e. for a maximum of 60 days under that emergency ordinance .....

I do not believe that the reason given , i.e. "to help with investigations into the April 9 robbery" is an reason why one can suddenly resort to this Detention Without Trial Ordinance.

The fundamental human rights of all PERSONS must at all time be respected .... it is not open to the police to arbitrarily just resort to the ISA and/or other Detention Without Trial Laws to keep persons detained for longer periods than permitted.

In Malaysia, it is 14 days - and this is already 'too long' compared with other jurisdictions.

I call for the immediate and unconditional release of these 3 suspects (remembering, of course that one is innocent until proven guilty)....

Saturday May 10, 2008 (Star Online)

Three held under Emergency Ordinance

SHAH ALAM: The three suspects in the RM3.5mil heist at the KL International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang were detained yesterday under the Emergency Ordinance for 60 days to help with investigations into the April 9 robbery, Selangor Chief Police Officer Deputy Comm Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said.

He said the suspects were moved from the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters to the Selangor police headquarters here.

The suspects were picked up in three operations in Johor, 10 days after the robbery.

In the three-minute heist at 7.50pm, four gunmen were involved in a shootout with the bodyguards of two moneychangers and an off-duty policeman, before escaping with a bag containing S$1.5mil (RM3.5mil).

The incident left the moneychangers, bodyguards, policeman and a Nepalese contract worker with gunshot wounds in the hands and legs.

During the arrest of the suspects, the police also recovered RM298,122, S$12,000 (RM28,030) and US$129,000 (RM412,482).

They also seized five 9mm semi-automatic pistols, 284 rounds of 9mm ammunition, five rounds of .22 ammunition, a smoke bomb, five pairs of handcuffs and two cars – a BMW 3 Series and a Honda Jazz.

The charred wreckage of a Nissan Murano and a BMW 5 Series, believed to have been used in the robbery, were found in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam. – Bernama