INVESTIGATIONS into the 12 men detained for allegedly promoting defunct terror group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been completed, police said today, adding it is now up to the Attorney-General’s Chambers whether to charge them.

Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Terrorism assistant principal director Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the investigation papers have been submitted to the AGC.

“We have completed the investigations and have handed over the file to the A-G’s office.

“It is up to the A-G to charge or to release all 12 men,” Ayob told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters today.

Those detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 over purported links to the Sri Lankan Tamil separatist group, were allowed to celebrate Deepavali with their wives at the KL police station.

Ayob said it is the right of the families to meet the detainees, adding that they were allowed to bring food and spend two hours with the detained men.

“It is not just for them, it is a standard SOP (standard operating procedure) that we arrange visits during religious celebrations.

“They are given sufficient treatment if needed, and so far their health is good.”

Earlier this week, the wives of three of the detainees staged a hunger strike outside the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman, demanding that their loved ones be released before Deepavali.

They ended the protest yesterday afternoon after realising that their husbands would not be released anytime soon.

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.

Two of them – G. Saminathan and P. Gunasekaran – are DAP assemblymen from Malacca and Negri Sembilan.

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

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

The 12 are being detained under Sosma, which allows for detention of up to 28 days without charge.

Earlier this week, five of the 12 filed a habeas corpus application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court to challenge their detention. The court fixed October 31 for hearing.

Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh, acting for the five, told reporters that he had hoped to have the application heard before Deepavali.

The habeas corpus application were filed by Saminathan, Gunasekaran, Chandru Suparmaniam, Suresh Kumar Velayuthan and Arivainthan Subramaniam.

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

Habeas corpus is a legal recourse for those under detention to plead their case before a judge unless the authorities can prove lawful grounds for their arrest. – October 27, 2019.