The draft Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) should either be rejected or amended by the parliament of Malaysia, said the ICJ today in an open letter to the Speaker of the Lower House of the Parliament of Malaysia.
“This law is really prone to abuse and violates international human rights standards,” said Emerlynne Gil, ICJ International Legal Adviser for Southeast Asia.
“This is just the unlawful Internal Security Act with another name. Persons may be sent to prolonged administrative detention on security grounds, on a permanent basis, while the draft law also precludes any effective inquiry by the judiciary into the lawfulness of any other aspect of the arrest or detention of persons arrested under this law.”
“There is a very high threshold that needs to be met to justify the creation of a system of administrative security detention. The government of Malaysia has not shown how the current situation in the country meets this threshold,” Gil added.
Malaysia-Open Letter to Parliament on POTA-Advocacy-open letter-2015-ENG