THE government will maintain the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) as it is still needed, said the Home Ministry. 

“The government feels that Sosma is still relevant to preserve public safety and the police need such laws to preserve public order,” said the Home Ministry in a written reply to Parliament yesterday.

According to the ministry, 374 people have been detained under detention without trial between January 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021.

“Of this, seven were investigated for terrorism and 55 were detained for human trafficking and migrant smuggling,

“Of this, 29 have been charged under the Penal Code while 25 were charged under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act (Atipsom),” said the ministry.

It said that the Criminal Investigation Department has also detained 312 people under Sosma.

The government was responding to R. Sivarasa’s (Sg Buloh-PH) question on whether the government planned to amend Sosma to ensure justice to the detained and how many people had been detained under the act between January 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021. 

Sosma was introduced by former prime minister Najib Razak (Pekan-BN) in 2012 to replace the controversial detention without trial law, the Internal Security Act. 

In 2016, Sosma was used to arrest 15 prominent civil rights activists, including now Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah after the Bersih 5 rally. – October 27, 2021.