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Rights & Democracy Urges Malaysian Government to Clear Human Rights Advocate Irene Fernandez

News Release

Montreal - Oct. 16, 2003 - Today's conviction of human rights advocate Irene Fernandez on charges of "publishing false news with malicious intent" is an affront to freedom of expression in Malaysia and must be overturned immediately, says Rights & Democracy.

Ms. Fernandez is Director of Tenaganita, a human rights organization committed to defending the rights of the migrant labourers providing cheap labour to Malaysia's plantations and factories. She was finally convicted today in a trial that began on June 10, 1996, on charges Ms. Fernandez violated Section 8A (1) of Malaysia's Printing Presses and Publications Act by releasing a memorandum called Abuse, Torture and Dehumanized Treatment of Migrant Workers in Detention Camps. The report alleged rampant abuse, death and horrific living conditions in the government-run camps where immigrant labourers and refugees from countries including Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines are detained and processed upon arrival in Malaysia.

A motion to resume the trial, which was scheduled to conclude on Mar. 17, 2004, was filed unexpectedly last week on the same day Ms. Fernandez's senior counsel left Malaysia for a two week assignment in Pakistan. Ms. Fernandez, who was forced to present her final submissions in her lawyer's absence, is now sentenced to one year in jail. She is currently out on bail pending the outcome of an appeal.

"Irene Fernandez's conviction is little more than an attempt to whitewash the brutality endemic to Malaysia's migrant detention camps," said Jean-Louis Roy, President of Rights & Democracy. "In speaking out against this outrage, Ms. Fernandez did nothing more than fulfill her duty to the cause of human rights in Malaysia."

Rights & Democracy calls on the Malaysian government to clear Ms. Fernandez on all charges and thereby uphold its obligation to defend freedom of expression as guaranteed under Section 10 (1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. Rights & Democracy also urges the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamed, to create an independent public inquiry into the findings outlined in the Tenaganita report in question.