NST Online: Topnews

Bersih 2.0 gets leave to challenge unlawful order

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 09:55 PM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: The steering committee of Bersih 2.0 today obtained leave from the High Court to challenge the order declaring it an unlawful society.

Judge Datuk Rohana Yusuf, who made the decision in chambers, allowed the leave application of the committee for a judicial review to quash the decision.

The court set Nov 22 to hear the merit of the judicial review.

On July 8, 14 members of the committee, including Datuk S.Ambiga, filed the leave application naming the Home Minister, Inspector-General of Police and the government as respondents.

They are seeking an order of certiorari to remove the order dated July 1 by the Home Minister declaring Bersih 2.0 an unlawful society and an order to quash it forthwith.

They also want a declaration that the order is null and void and of no effect.

Ambiga, who is chairman of the committee, told reporters that the judge had granted them leave to seek to quash the decision and have the order declared null and void.

However, Ambiga said, the judge denied the leave application for an order prohibiting the respondents from entering and searching their premises as well as and an order to compel the respondents to release the T-shirts, placards, newspapers, books, banners and any other documents or objects belonging to them which were seized by the police.

Ambiga said that she was happy with the ruling as it related to an executive order.

Senior Federal Counsel Datuk Kamaluddin Md Said, representing the respondents, said that he will get instructions from his superiors on whether to appeal against the ruling.

In the application, the committee claimed that the order decreed that the Bersih movement was declared an unlawful society because it was allegedly "being used for purposes prejudicial to the interests of the security of Malaysia and public order".

Bersih 2.0, the committee contended, was substantively different from the movement known simply as Bersih which was launched in 2007 and comprised political parties and civil society organisations.

Bersih 2.0, it said, consisted solely of civil society organisations and was launched in November last year.

The applicants claimed that the order was illegal because Bersih 2.0 was substantively different from Bersih, and that Bersih, as it originally stood, no longer existed. -- BERNAMA

Explosion at Empire Shopping Gallery

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 07:22 PM PDT

Explosion at Empire Shopping Gallery

2011/09/28
By Sean Augustin
sean@nst.com.my

SUBANG JAYA: Two security guards and a couple suffered minor injuries when a gas leak caused a massive explosion at the Empire Shopping Gallery in SS16, Subang Jaya.

Several shops including Coach, Tangs and Starbucks were badly damaged in the 3.40am explosion with glass shards everywhere.

About three hundred guests from the Empire Hotel next to the gallery were evacuated in wee hours in the morning and 30-40 shoplots damaged in the explosion.

The shopping gallery will be closed until further notice.

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Explosion at Empire Shopping Gallery

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Selasa, 27 September 2011