Press Release: Seeking justice for Yusoff Rawther

On Friday night, the 6th of September 2024, my sister and I were about to finish our dinner when we got a call informing us that our nephew, Muhammed Yusoff Rawther, had been arrested, purportedly for possession of imitation guns and drugs, and that he was being held at IPD Brickfields.

We went cold and our fears for his safety which we always carried with us came to pass; and to think that it was only the weekend before this that we had spent time with our nephews.

On the morning of 6th September 2024 Yusoff went to his car that was parked overnight on the side of the road outside his condominium block when the police ambushed him; a team of police had come in an unmarked car and a motorcycle. One of the police told Yusoff, ‘saya ada terima maklumat dalam kenderaan ini ada senjata’.

The police asked him to open the car door but it did not open with the remote, then one of them asked Yusoff to open the car door manually and it still did not work. One of the police then opened the car door from the passenger’s side and then got Yusoff to open the door on the driver’s side.

Yusoff was then restrained at the rear end of the car while the police searched the car and came out with a bag and asked Yusoff what it was and he said he did not know, and they showed Yusoff a gun from inside the bag.

They then handcuffed Yusoff, got him to sit in the back of his car together with a police and another one of them drove the car to IPK KL and searched the car there. Yusoff, who was outside the car was being held back at the rear end of the car and he could not see what was happening inside the car and the drugs appeared at the car park in front of the surau at the IPK KL.

After this they had to process Yusoff, he was not given any food or water and was made to stand for about 3 hours.

The police at IPK KL tried to get Yusoff to sign the Borang Bongkar and intimidated him to do so but he stood resolute and refused to sign it.

Then Yusoff was taken to IPD Brickfields to do a urine test which came out negative. The police then sent him back to IPD KL because they wanted to update some form or other and they tried to get Yusoff to sign it and he refused.

Yusoff was then taken to IPD Dang Wangi to do another urine test which came out negative; and after this Yusoff was taken to IPD Brickfields where he first met the IO. This was about 8/9 at night.

It was at this time that Yusoff was able to call his brother who then called us.

He was in the lock up at IPD Brickfields that night and the next evening he was taken to IPD Dang Wangi and kept there until he was charged on 11 September 2024 under s. 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and sent to Sungai Buloh prison.

On 9 October 2024 Yusoff was charged under s. 36(1) of the Firearms Act 1960. We have no doubt that Yusoff is being framed with crimes under s. 39B and s. 36(1) and this goes back to what we said earlier that we always had fears for his safety. This fear goes back to events that took place in 2018 and 2019.

On around 2018 when Yusoff was in the employ of Yayasan Aman, Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, the then political secretary to Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, attacked Yusoff and injured him and sometime later Dato Seri’s political secretary, Tunku Nashrul bin Tunku Abaidah, issued defamatory statements against Yusoff.

Yusoff filed a police report regarding the attack and he filed a civil suit against Tunku Nashrul and Yusoff succeeded in this case where the Court ordered damages and for an apology to be issued; which has not been complied with till today.

As for the police report, there has been no progress on this.

Ever since then we have been very wary of Yusoff’s safety.

Yusoff, prior to his arrest, had noticed that he was constantly being followed and was generally vigilant but it seems it was not enough.

This whole episode has had the family in grip of fear for Yusoff’s safety and for all our own safety and security as well.

One would have thought that with the repeal of the ISA, that citizens are protected; and that the days of arbitrary detention are all behind us, but only to find that this does not stop the sinister practice of using existing laws to bring trumped up charges.

What is also more frightening is how dissent is now being silenced.

I had emailed the local chapter of an international human rights organisation about Yusoff’s plight and did not even get as much as an acknowledgment from them.

Dissenters have now been rendered deaf, dumb and blind. Our once vibrant democracy has now been bersih bersih diubah.

It is a Machiavellian orchestration to use s. 39B to break Yusoff. S. 39B is a draconian law under which there is no recourse to bail, at all; the Courts are shackled from exercising their discretion in this matter. How can the Courts be shackled – and they should break free from this horror.

A person charged under s. 39B, despite it being oppressive, does not afford the accused early trial. They first have to wait for the chemist report which can take months to be ready and from the accounts one reads in the press it would take years for the case to come to Trial; and only to find that the Defence may not be called. And all this while the accused languishes in prison.

Such a practice should have no place in a civilized society.

Yusoff today is an unconvicted prisoner at Sungai Buloh prison. Yusoff suffers from lactose and dairy intolerance, and great care has to be taken in preparing his meals.

In prison, Yusoff, as of what we communicated with last, does not have breakfast and his meals consist of rice, potatoes and taukwa. He has lost a lot of weight. How long has Yusoff to live like this? This is legalised torture and it is most unbearable, and cannot be allowed to take place in this country.

In remand as an unconvicted prisoner Yusoff cannot participate in activities that other prisoners have. His life behind bars is just to sit in there and wait for his case to be called up.

An article in the British Psychological Society magazine quoting from a White Paper on prisons described imprisonment as, “‘expensive way of making bad people worse” (assuming that they are bad in the first place) and the article says, “The inevitable harms of incarceration include the entrenchment of community disadvantage, the sundering of family ties and the limiting of human potential”.

Yusoff has filed an application in Court seeking a declaration that s. 41B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 is unconstitutional.

The Government of Malaysia is opposing this application and quibbling about whether this is a matter for the civil courts or the criminal courts. The Government says it is planning to reform 3000 over laws and is bringing in provisions for house arrest, an ostensible reason given for this is to overcome the overcrowding in the prison; and yet they are now quibbling about whether Yusoff’s application is a civil matter or a criminal matter. For God’s sake it is a matter about justice and humanity and that is why people turn to the Courts.

In opposing this application, the Government is behaving like the Pharisees in the Bible, where they “strain out a gnat but swallow a camel”.

The discretion of the Courts should never be curbed as attempted by s. 39B and s. 41. It is antithetical to any system of justice – we cannot have courts where they cannot exercise their discretion.

Yusoff is a victim of unscrupulous scheming and is inhumanely being imprisoned, we need civil society to care about what Yusoff and others like Yusoff are being put through and call for him to be released.

This is a terrible injustice wrecked upon Yusoff. My late father S M Mohd Idris when accepting the Ibn Khaldun award on behalf of CAP in 2018 from IIUM in his acceptance speech said this:-

Any speech making must come sincerely and intensely be heard and must move the heart, lift the hands and act…. We see many wrongs we just go away. No. We have to stand up. Even injustice we stand up and fight. We cannot have criminality of silence.

Whoever is behind this frame up has no doubt the apparatus of the state at their disposal; we would nevertheless fight this inhumanity even if we only have a Sinwar stick against them.

Dated: 12 November 2024

FATHIMA BINTI MOHD IDRIS

KHATIJA BINTI MOHD IDRIS

Subscribe Below: