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Irene Fernandez
Irene Fernandez has been on trial for four years on charges of "malicious publishing" under the 1984 Printing Presses and Publication Act. Fernandez, head of the Kuala Lumpur-based women's rights organization called Tenaganita ("Women's Force"), has been forced to bear devastating court costs and faces the possibility of three years' imprisonment and substantial fines. Her only "offense" is having published a short memorandum in July 1995 on abuses in immigration detention centers in Malaysia. When the report was released, camp conditions attracted international attention. Drawing on interviews with over 300 former detainees, the memorandum alleged that unsanitary conditions, inadequate food and water, frequent deaths from beatings and a lack of medical care, sexual abuse, and corruption were rife in Malaysia's immigration detention camps. The government claims that the memorandum contained errors.
The defense is currently presenting its case. Beginning in January 2000, former detainees from Bangladesh testified that they were beaten and seriously injured; forced to perform sex acts on other detainees; kept in crowded, mosquito-infested rooms with foul toilets; denied medical care, water, and clean clothes; and forced to stand looking into the sun as a form of punishment.
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