Advocates tell Govt: Apologise to over 300 detainees freed without charge

Calls are be­ing made for the State to apol­o­gise to hun­dreds of peo­ple de­tained in prison fa­cil­i­ties un­der Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders, as the present State of Emer­gency is sched­uled to come to an end next week.

Last Fri­day, the Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter said 240 were charged, leav­ing over 300 peo­ple leav­ing the var­i­ous prison fa­cil­i­ties with­out any charges be­ing laid.

As de­tainees start­ed to be re­leased on Sep­tem­ber 10, for­mer House Speak­er Nizam Mo­hammed said State rep­re­sen­ta­tives should meet with those be­ing re­leased, ex­plain what hap­pened un­der the emer­gency reg­u­la­tions and apol­o­gise to them. Hu­man rights ad­vo­cate Denise Pitch­er al­so backed an apol­o­gy but said it should on­ly be a first step.