THE police probe into Muhyiddin Yassin’s supporters who had gathered outside the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya on Thursday must be stopped immediately, Lawyers for Liberty said.

Its director, Zaid Malek, said the probe was oppressive, unnecessary and unbecoming of any government or leader that claims to be “reformist”. 

“The gathering at MACC was peaceful. Hence the purpose of the police probe cannot be to safeguard public order; it is to prevent the expression of dissent and the right to assemble,” he said in a statement.

Zaid also hit out at Pakatan Harapan (PH) for backtracking against the public’s right to freedom of assembly after coming to power.

“It would be obvious hypocrisy and double standards for a PH-led government to now preside over a crackdown on peaceful public assemblies held by the opposition.

“The gathering by supporters of the Bersatu president was peaceful and the crowd peacefully dispersed after. There is neither legal nor moral justification for a criminal investigation to be opened against them,” he said.

Zaid added that public assemblies can occur on the spur of the moment, as an immediate response to an event, exactly as what has occurred in the case of the gathering by those in support of Muhyiddin at the MACC headquarters. 

He said it would be unreasonable to expect them to strictly comply with the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 and demanding as such would be an unconstitutional limitation of the rights to public assembly under the Federal Constitution. 

“We strongly urge the PH-led government to not renege on its own principles now that they are in power, by ensuring that the right to assemble peacefully is entirely protected. 

“First, there must be an immediate halt to all police investigations against any person who was part of the assembly at the MACC headquarters. 

“Secondly, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the government must give a public undertaking that there will be no further crackdown on any peaceful rallies or assemblies in the future, held by any party whether from the government or opposition or civil society or the general public,” he said.

He was responding to the police investigation into people who had gathered to support the Bersatu leader who was summoned to MACC for questioning.

Muhyiddin was later charged with corruption and money laundering on Friday. – March 12, 2023.