A Malaysian court yesterday denied bail to 31 ethnic Indians, branding them a threat to national security after they were charged with attempting to murder a policeman during a rally against racial discrimination, a lawyer said.
Bedlam broke out in the courtroom when the judge announced the ruling, with family members and supporters of the accused shouting, booing and weeping, said defense lawyer P. Uthayakumar, who also organized the rally on Nov. 25.
"The court has denied bail because it said the 31 accused are a threat to national security and that the charge is serious," Uthayakumar said.
Their trial will begin on Jan. 14. If convicted they face up to 20 years in jail.
"They are trying to stifle us into abandoning our cause but we are not going to give up. We will continue with our legal, peaceful and international struggle," he said.
The 31 were charged with attempted murder on Tuesday and Wednesday in connection with a head injury suffered by police officer Dadi Abdul Rani at Batu Caves, the site of a Hindu temple.
It was one of the two places where at least 20,000 Indians rallied, throwing stones and bricks, before police drove them away with tear gas and water cannons.
Uthayakumar claimed the 31 accused were worshippers who were rounded up indiscriminately by police. He said the government was making an example of them to prevent more protests.
The Nov. 25 rally was the largest protest in at least a decade involving the largely impoverished Indians, who form 8 percent of the population and are the country's second-largest minority after ethnic Chinese.
They are demanding equality and fair treatment, and complain that an affirmative action program that gives preferential treatment to Muslim Malays is tantamount to racial discrimination.
Malays make up 60 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people and control the government, which denies there is discrimination.
The rally came two weeks after a massive street demonstration by a largely Malay crowd in downtown Kuala Lumpur to demand electoral reforms. Uthayakumar noted that no Malays were prosecuted for taking part in that rally.
"The denial of bail is racism against the Indians," he said.
The 31 men, aged between 18 and 54, were also charged with damaging public property and illegal assembly, while some were charged with rioting.
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