Detained Malaysia MP's wife appeals for his freedom

REUTERS
By Bill Tarrant

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The wife of an Indian rights activist who won a seat in Malaysia's parliament in last weekend's watershed elections while an internal security detainee appealed to the prime minister on Thursday for his freedom.

Lawyer M. Manoharan, one of five Hindu rights activists detained under internal security laws for organising a major anti-government protest last year, won his parliamentary seat outside the capital with almost two-thirds of the vote.

The five activists are being held in a detention centre in northern Malaysia under a colonial-era law that provides for indefinite detention without charge or trial. Manoharan was running on the Chinese-backed Democratic Action Party ticket.

The Court of Appeals is due to rule on his case on April 2, but his wife, Pushpaneela, 46, hopes he will be released before then.

"People have voted for him and he should be released immediately," the mother of four told Reuters on Thursday.

"Someone told me the (national police chief) has said if the federal government says Manoharan is to be released then he has no objection. The PM has the final say. I appeal to the PM that my husband should be released immediately."

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's press secretary Azhar Othman said "no decision has been made" regarding Manoharan's case and acknowledged that having an elected MP sitting in an ISA detention camp was a predicament.

"Yes, it is a problem. But there are more pressing issues right now," he said. Continued...