Foreign workers’ right protector
attacked repeatedly by different ‘viruses’
Malaysiakini news by Fauwaz Abdul Aziz | Aug 5, 08
A computer virus wiped out several of the recently-typed proceeding notes pertaining to migrant workers’ activist Irene Fernandez’s Kuala Lumpur High Court appeal, resulting in the need for that particular volume of notes to be re-typed.
This was among the reasons for Fernandez’s case mention to be pushed to Sept 10, Justice Mohamad Apandi Ali told the court this morning.
“I was informed (by the typist) that one volume had been partially completed when the computer got corrupted by a virus and she has to type it up all over again,” said Apandi.
The other reason for the delay – to what has already been dubbed ‘the longest trial in Malaysian history’ – was the lack of clerical staff to type out the proceedings notes, he said.
Apologising for the delay while noting that the case had only been in his court for a few months, Apandi said the court staff was working very hard to complete the tasks as soon as possible.
“Please bear with me on this,” he said, as Fernandez, sitting in the dock, was seen shaking her head in disbelief.
Fernandez is appealing the conviction by the Kuala Lumpur magistrate’s court in 2003 of maliciously publishing false news after she exposed the conditions of immigration detention centres in a memorandum entitled ‘Abuse, Torture and Dehumanised Conditions of Migrant workers in Detention Centres’.
Arrested and charged under Section 8A(1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 a year after her memorandum was made public, she was sentenced in 2003 to 12 months’ imprisonment but was allowed bail pending appeal.
Since filing her appeal, there have been numerous postponements, most notable the temporary loss of court files – which had testimonies of prosecution and defence witnesses.
Apandi assured today that typed notes would be available within a month, and set Sep 10 for case mention. He also set the case for hearing to Oct 28-30 and Nov 24-28.
Apandi said further that he was targeting to be able to deliver his judgement on the case in December.
Up to 8,000 pages
Met later, Fernandez’s counsel M Moganambal said all of the typed testimonies of the prosecution witnesses are ready.
However only a handful of the defense witnesses’ testimonies have been completed from the handwritten notes of KL Magistrate Juliana Mohamed – who handed down the 2003 sentence on Fernandez.
Among those said to be completed, she said, are the testimonies of Fernandez herself and Malaysiakinieditor-in-chief Steven Gan who was in 1995 a features reporter forThe Sun.
Also completed were the testimonies of three migrants – former inmates of the Semenyih, Macap Umbo and Tanah Merah immigration detention centres.
About 17 out of the total of 21 witnesses testimonies remain in Juliana’s written notes and have to be typed out.
Another of Fernandez’ lawyers, M Puravelan, estimated that the total number of pages of the appeal records are anywhere between 6,000 to 8,000 pages.
Earlier in court, lawyer Syamsuriatina Ishak asked the judge for leave to observe the proceedings as a watching brief for the Human Rights Committee of the Bar Council. The application was granted by Apandi.
Among others present at the court were friends and supporters of Fernandez – who is executive director of migrants advocacy group Tenaganita – including Swedish ambassador Helena Sångelanddor and a representative of the office of the European Union in Kuala Lumpur.
Filed under: Burma
