By DayakDaily Team
SERIAN, April 4: The Semuja Magistrates’ Court here today dismissed a remand application filed by the police to investigate three Myanmar nationals and four Indian nationals for alleged breaches of immigration laws.
According to a statement, the seven suspects were arrested at a budget hotel on Ban Hock Road, Kuching, at about 1.30pm on March 7.
They have been in detention since March 7 and were brought before Senior Assistant Officer, Juhari Bujang, by the police to apply for a further remand of 14 days under Section 51(5)(b) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.
Two of the Indian nationals were represented by Counsel Russell Lim, Jong Yee Ling, Christopher Ho, and Brendan Ting.
Lim in his submission today said that it is an injustice for the foreign suspects to be continuously detained for so long and that they must not be deprived of their personal liberty for an indefinite period of time whilst the police carried on their investigations.
“The remand application has failed to indicate what offence are the suspects investigated for in the first place and to make matters worse, there is nothing to substantiate what investigations have been carried out until today to justify a further remand.
“I believe the police investigation can be carried out without the suspects being in detention and their release will not affect the investigation in any way,” he said.
Juhari then dismissed the application for further remand and ordered that the seven foreigners be deported back to their respective countries.
He said that it is important that foreign nationals not be detained for an indefinite period as this would jeopardise the good bilateral relationship between Malaysia and other foreign nations.
Investigating Officer Rizal Malek applied for the remand. — DayakDaily
