AP-Malaysia Activist Finally Testif

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Subject: AP-Malaysia Activist Finally Testifies 

APRIL 07, 07:14 EDT

Malaysia Activist Finally Testifies

By JOCELYN GECKER
Associated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysia's leading human rights activist,
charged with falsely accusing police of torturing and killing illegal
immigrants, took the stand for the first time today in the longest criminal
trial in the country's history.

Irene Fernandez, who runs a human rights group, Tenaganita, was arrested
after publishing a 48-page investigative report in August 1995 that exposed
deaths of illegal immigrants allegedly from malnutrition and torture in
Malaysian detention camps.

Since June 1996, Fernandez, 52, has spent two weeks of almost every month
silently watching the proceedings in a Kuala Lumpur courthouse.

Her report, based on interviews with more than 300 former detainees, accused
police of beating detainees and sexually abusing women, denying people
medical help and punishing those who asked for drinking water by forcing
them to stand for hours baking in the sun.

The government confirmed 98 detainees died but said they died of diseases
tracked in from their homelands.

Fernandez mostly testified today to her extensive experience as a human
rights activist.

New York-based Human Rights Watch named her Human Rights Monitor for Asia in
1996, Amnesty International has closely followed her current case and she
was named one of the world's 28 human rights defenders during last year's
50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Fernandez
said.

Even her prime antagonist, the Malaysian police force, had once called on
Fernandez to train their officers in handling domestic violence cases, she
said.

If convicted, she faces up to three years in jail.

Also today, the judge dismissed Fernandez' request to throw the case out
because 36 potential witnesses had been deported.

Drawing comparisons with another well-known defendant on trial at a nearby
courthouse, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Anwar said the
political nature of her case almost guarantees her conviction.

``In the last six months it has become obvious the judiciary has lost its
independence,'' Fernandez told The Associated Press at the start of her
defense. ``When a trial is more political in nature, a conviction is
certain.''


Anwar, charged with abuse of power and sexual misconduct, has referred to
his trial as a ``kangaroo court.''

Malaysia's former police chief has admitted he beat Anwar so brutally the
night of his arrest that doctors feared he might die. That revelation has
actually strengthened Fernandez' case, she said.

``Most people found the issues I raised four years ago difficult to believe.
Now they see it must have happened,'' she said.