The Star
Wednesday December 5, 2007
KUALA LUMPUR: The 10 people who were told by the police to appear at the magistrate’s court yesterday to be charged with taking part in the Nov 10 Bersih gathering did not turn up.
They did not have letters instructing them to do so, said one of their lawyers.
Zulqarnain Lukman, who is one of the coordinating lawyers, said that the 10 only received phone calls from an ASP Yahya from the Dang Wangi police station telling them to show up.
“But it was just phone calls and nothing in black and white,” he said.
Zulqarnain said that their police bail, however, expires only on Dec 10.
“The police called to speed up the date and asked the 10 to come to court (yesterday). But this was only verbal so it depends on what their lawyers’ advise them to do,” he added.
There are two to three other lawyers acting for the 10 men, he said.
“I was on standby today by the phone. If one of them had shown up at the court, I would have gone there but none did,” he added.
Zulqarnain said he had been in touch with the chairman of the PAS legal bureau, Haniffa Mydin, who told him that from past experience with illegal gatherings, if the accused did not show up in court, the police would then issue a warrant of arrest.
Most of the 10 were said to be PAS members from the unit amal and were responsible for managing the crowd during the Nov 10 gathering that did not have a police permit.