THREE women, whose husbands are locked-up under the Security Offences and Special Measure Act (Sosma) 2012 are on a hunger strike outside the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters..

The three have also been sleeping there for four days and will not leave until their husbands are released.

They decided today that they would also not eat until then.

The three husbands are detained on suspicion of ties to the long defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of Sri Lanka.

“We have been here since Monday and we will continue to stay unless they agree to release our husbands. Our husbands are innocent and the police must let them go immediately,” said Umadevi, wife of Gadek assemblyman G. Saminathan.

Umadevi said she could not just sit at home waiting for that to happen, and that celebrating Deepavali is the last thing on her mind.

“What is there to celebrate? My husband is in jail for things he didn’t do. Can I celebrate Deepavali without him? I’d rather wait for him here.”

“If they want to arrest the three of us, go ahead. We are not going to move an inch. We are going to stay until they are all released,” said Umadevi.

Police officers had asked the women to leave but they have not budged.

“They came and asked us to leave but we didn’t go anywhere. Maybe they see it is just the three of us, they didn’t bother to come again,” she said.

Umadevi is with Vimalar Jakumaran, wife of local councillor V. Suresh Kumar, and Sumadi whose husband is Green Technology Corporation CEO S. Chandru. Both are from Malacca.

Umadevi said her husband’s lawyer Ramkarpal Singh, who is representing five men in detention on similar charges, is aware of the three women’s actions.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning fixed next Thursday to hear an application for habeas corpus from the five men filed by Ramkarpal on Tuesday.

Ramkarpal said he hoped to have the application heard before Deepavali, which falls on Sunday.

Saminathan, P. Gunasekaran, Chandru Suparmaniam, Suresh Kumar Velayuthan and Arivainthan Subramaniam are challenging their Sosma detention.

Saminathan and Gunasekaran are DAP assemblymen.

The five men are among 12 people arrested on October 10 and 12 over alleged links to LTTE.

The five in their motion affirmed they are not part of the banned and defunct LTTE, and denied trying to revive the militant group.

Habeas corpus is legal recourse for those under detention to plead their case before a judge unless the authorities can prove lawful grounds for their arrest.

On October 10, the Special Branch Counterterrorism Division apprehended seven men on suspicion of promoting, supporting, channelling funds to and possessing materials related to LTTE.

They were detained in Selangor, Perak, Kedah, Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Kuala Lumpur.

Two days later, five more men were picked up on the same charges in Penang, Malacca and Selangor.

The dozen men are held under Sosma, which allows for detention of up to 28 days without charge. – October 24, 2019.