Hamza Kashgari was in Malaysia en route to New Zealand to seek asylum from likely death sentence in Saudi Arabia for allegedly tweeting blasphemous messages, but was arrested and deported.
Malaysian authorities claimed that Hamza was arrested upon arrival and handed over to the Saudi to be deported.
However, Malaysiakini published some photos to showed that the Malaysian authorities had lied. The photos were taken at Taman Tasik Titiwansa and Istana Budaya and mentioned too a photo taken at KLIA arrival hall.
So had the Malaysian authorities lied and can the UMNO/BN government be trusted to tell the truth?
Well, look at the photos below and form your own conclusions.
Article NGO: Photos show gov’t ‘lied’ about deportation courtesy of Malaysiakini:
NGO: Photos show gov't 'lied' about deportation
11:57AM Mar 23, 2012
The NGO Lawyers for Liberty said photographs showing Saudi national Hamza Kashgari in the country shows that the government had lied about having arrested the journalist upon arrival.
“Lawyers for Liberty has obtained photographs that affirmatively showed Hamza Kashgari was actually in the country for a couple of days before his arrest on Feb 9, 2012,” said the group in a statement yesterday.
The group produced several photographs of Hamza taken at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa and Istana Budaya in Kuala Lumpur, and one at the KL International Airport (KLIA) departure hall.
They said the photographs contradict the Home Ministry’s claim that the Saudi national, wanted in his home country, had been arrested upon arrival.
“The home minister and the police had continuously maintained that Hamza was arrested upon his arrival at KLIA on Feb 9, when in fact he was stopped by the immigration at the KLIA departure hall while trying to board a plane to Auckland, New Zealand after having arrived in Malaysia on February 7,” said the group.
They cited PDRM spokesperson Ramli Yoosuf’s statement reported in AFP on February 9 that Hamza had been “detained at the airport upon arrival following a request made to us by Interpol after the Saudi authorities applied for it”.
“These photographic proof reaffirmswhat Lawyers for Liberty has maintained all along - that the home minister and police had bent over backwards to please the Saudi Arabian government and had resorted to lies and deception in order to save the embarrassment that they had allowed Hamza to enter Malaysia, and to further justify Hamza’s unlawful detention and deportation which violated domestic and international law,” they added.
Hamza (left) had earlier fled his homeland after allegedly tweeting messages held to be blasphemous to Islam, with the Saudi authorities on his tail.
Malaysian lawyers had attempted to stop his deportation from Malaysia through a court order, but had not managed to serve it before Hamza’s departure from the country.
Following this, the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) slammed the government’s move as a violation of international human rights law of which which Malaysia is a signatory.
LFL yesterday added that Hamza has since been tried in Saudi’s criminal court on March 7 where his “repentance” was recorded, and at present remains in solitary confinement at Al-Hair Prison without access to a lawyer nor any indication of his release or detention period.