Global rights groups condemn duo's arrest as lawyers warn money laundering law being weaponised against govt critics

An international alliance representing thousands of civil society groups in 175 countries has joined major human rights organisations in calling on Putrajaya to release Amir Hadi and Dobby Chew, warning that anti-money laundering laws intended to fight corruption are now being targeted at activists like them.

A joint call by the World Alliance for Citizen Participation (Civicus) and others said there was an "absence of a clear and legal justification for their arrest and detention".

They also questioned the authorities' clampdown on youth movement Mandiri and anti-death penalty group Hayat, the two organisations respectively led by Amir and Chew.

"The arrest and detention of the leaders and other restrictive measures appear to have been implemented without due process and create a chilling effect on the work of human rights defenders and civil society organisations in Malaysia," said the statement issued by Civicus, Amnesty International, Forum-Asia, Front Line Defenders and Human Rights Watch.

For weeks, authorities have targeted Mandiri and Hayat, including a police raid on their shared office in Petaling Jaya on Sept 18. Authorities have given few details on the scope of the investigation, saying there were "suspicious funds".

Four days later, Amir and Chew were arrested when they arrived to have their statements taken at the Bukit Aman police headquarters. They were later brought to court in handcuffs and orange T-shirts, despite a recent assurance by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim that the practice of parading detainees in lock-up uniforms would be stopped.

The duo were remanded for three days for investigation under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, or Amla.

PM aide's call

Before their arrest, the pair were slapped with travel bans, and their personal bank accounts as well as those of Mandiri and Hayat were frozen without explanation.

In their joint statement, the five rights groups noted that Mandiri had been the target of attack from the Prime Minister's Office, as well as an online smear campaign in May, with anonymous social media posts accusing it of receiving foreign funding to destabilise the government.

The prime minister's political secretary, Kamil Munim, upped the ante by calling for an investigation under Amla, allegations which became the subject of a defamation suit filed by Mandiri.

"Civil society organisations should be free to receive and use legitimate funding, organise, advocate and engage in public debate without intimidation or unjustified government interference," the statement added.

'Vague insinuation'

Meanwhile, rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) slammed the continued practice of parading those being investigated as convicted criminals.

"Amir Hadi and Dobby Chew were dragged to Jinjang Remand Court, barefoot, handcuffed and clad in orange lock-up T-shirts. Is this the treatment to be meted out to civil society activists?" asked LFL director Rania Aljunied.

"Anwar Ibrahim himself went through the same treatment when he was in opposition not too long ago. Is this the treatment he would want to impose on activists, when he was once in the same position as them?"

LFL said the law being used against them, Section 4(1) of Amla, which criminalises proceeds of an unlawful activity, does not exist in a vacuum.

"The police must first establish a predicate offence – an actual unlawful activity from which the alleged proceeds are said to originate. Without a predicate offence, there is no 'unlawful activity' and without unlawful activity, there can be no 'proceeds' of it," said Rania, adding that the government and police have never specified the predicate offence.

"What we have instead is the vague insinuation that the funds in question are 'wang yang disyaki', or suspected money."

She said that by arresting them without identifying the offence, the law was "being weaponised, not enforced".

"On that standard, a significant proportion of Malaysians who have ever received or transferred funds from abroad could be harassed and probed the same way," warned LFL.

"It bears reminding that members of this very government were themselves, not even a decade ago, subject to the same pattern of investigations, freezes and restrictions they now impose on others."