Cancer patient among Sosma detainees on hunger strike
GEORGE TOWN: A cancer patient is among eight detainees at the Penang Prison with health issues who are demanding to be allowed bail as they are being held without trial under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) 2012.
The eight, aged between 30 and 60, who were placed in separate cells due to their health, went on a hunger strike at the prison. They were among the 42 Sosma detainees at the Penang Prison.
Some 30 family members of the eight detainees also gathered at the prison to show support for the cause.
Malaysian Tamilar Kural president David Marshel, who led the peaceful gathering, said the detainees were in poor health as they also refused to take medication.
“They started their hunger strike on Monday morning because they wanted to be allowed bail due to health reasons,” he told reporters.
“The detainees also want a clear direction from the government regarding the future of the preventive detention law.
“The ministers and the Prime Minister said that it will be abolished, but when? The detainees want to know. Just give us a date when it will be abolished.
“For now, I was told that the group prefers death over continued detention under Sosma,” he said.
Retiree P. Letchumy, 63, said her son-in-law was among the eight detainees.
“He has asthma and has to be on medication,” she said, adding he had been in the lockup since 2017.
Marshel also met with the prison warden to discuss the condition of the eight detainees.
“He will meet with the inmates and talk to them and we will get updates from him later,” he said.
Marshel said the eight would not end the hunger strike until they were allowed bail, based on a handwritten memorandum they had given him to deliver to the government.
In the memorandum, the inmates stated that they were willing to die in prison for their cause.
They also said they were worried for their families who were without any source of income and that their health condition had worsened while in prison.
Some of them also claimed their wives had asked for divorce.
Marshel hoped the government would look into the detainees’ plight and end their hunger strike.
On Sunday, it was reported that at least 160 detainees, held under Sosma, were on a hunger strike at the Sungai Buloh Prison.
They want Sosma to be repealed. Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Alwi Ibrahim had said that the special committee tasked to review Sosma would hold a third meeting this week.