POLICE investigating participants of the #Lawan protest at Dataran Merdeka last week should leave their family members alone, Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat member Mohammad Abdullah Alshatri said.

He said several families of rally goers have been “visited” by policemen in the past one week and described this as a breach of privacy.

“Apart from going to the address of the individuals who take part in the rally, police also ‘visited’ their parents’ homes,” Mohammad told the media in a virtual press conference today.

“The police claimed that they were only checking on the address to make sure that the protesters were telling the truth.

“This is an act of intimidation and the police must stop it once and for all.”

Since early this week, police have started investigating the #Lawan rally participants by summoning 29 of them.

Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani previously said 20 police reports opposing the protest were lodged nationwide.

Acryl said apart from the 29 individuals, who included the organisers, police are in the midst of identifying other participants through photos and videos of the demonstration.

He said the probe is being carried out under various laws, including the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act, as the protest took place during the lockdown to curb Covid-19 transmissions.

Mohammad slammed the police for releasing images of masked rally participants to the media, saying police could have just contacted them straightaway.

“They released 40 images of them, but why can’t they get it touch with the protesters? It is unnecessary for the police to release the images to the public,” he said.

“Apart from intimidating the protesters and their families, they are also acting irresponsibly by sharing their images widely.” 

Last Saturday, protesters gathered in Jalan Tun Perak at 11.30am and planned to march to Dataran Merdeka, which had been sealed off by police.

They ended up staging a sit-in outside the Kuala Lumpur City Hall building.

Most of the crowd, estimated to be more than 1,000 strong, were young people wearing black – the protest colour – and carrying black flags.

Their three demands were the resignation of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, the full restoration of Parliament and a loan repayment moratorium for all. – August 7, 2021.