Extracted from The Star

Woman released after two-month detention under EO

by Stephen Then

MIRI: A woman arrested with her husband and brother-in-law under the Emergency Ordinance for alleged armed robbery in Bintulu, northern Sarawak, has been freed after 60 days in detention.

Melati Bekeni, 28, walked free after the Sarawak police released her on Sunday. She will be reunited with her 18-month-old daughter Victoria, whom she was breastfeeding at the time of her arrest, and three-year-old son Vincent.

However, her husband Marai Senggok, also 28, and his brother Bunya, 21, were ordered to be detained at the Simpang Renggam detention centre in Johor.

Bunya, Marai and Melati were arrested in January and detained under the Ordinance after Bintulu police accused them of being involved in a series of robberies.

However, family members claimed the three were arrested because of their dispute with a development consortium over a plot of land the natives claim were an ancestral heritage.

The father of the brothers, tuai rumah (longhouse chief) Sengok Sabang, confirmed yesterday that Melati had been freed.

“She is living with relatives near Miri. My two sons have been flown to Johor. The police did not tell me why they were taken out of Sarawak,” he told The Star.

Sengok appealed to police and the Home Ministry to release his sons, saying they were breadwinners for the family.

Sahabat Alam Malaysia Sarawak field officer Jok Jau Evong said yesterday their lawyers in Kuala Lumpur had learnt that Bunya and Marai had been detained for two years under the Emergency Ordinance.

Suhakam’s commissioner for Sarawak Dr Mohd Hirman Ritom said the commission had tried its best but still failed to get the two released.