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STATEMENT ON TRIAL OF IRENE FERNANDEZ
YET AGAIN ANOTHER POSTPONEMENT IN TRIAL OF “I lost them. I found them and I lost them and found them” seems to be a game of the court in the case of the unending trial of Irene Fernandez. Irene the director of Tenaganita was convicted to 12 months imprisonment on October 16, 2003 under the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984 for publishing false news over a memorandum on the abuse, detention and in humanized treatment of migrant workers in Immigration detention centers. The Memorandum was sent to the government and the media in August 1995. On May 12, 2008, Irene went back to the High Court to determine whether the notes of evidence of 3 prosecution witnesses had been found. The judge had given the court one month to search and get the missing notes. The investigator told the judge that the notes could not be found. The judge then ordered the investigator to make a police report. Since the appeal records cannot be completed and will not be completed, he called on both the Defence and the Prosecution to argue out a case of whether a full hearing of the appeal should continue or whether the appeal should be accepted by the High Court. The judge fixed June 11 2008 for this hearing. Now, our lawyers have been informed that miraculously the notes of evidence of all the 3 prosecution witnesses have been found and thus the appeal record can be completed. How and why the notes have appeared, remain a mystery. Only the court can verify. It really speaks volumes of how justice is seen and executed; how liberty of a person is valued and how accountability is registered in our halls of justice. What then happens now? Our lawyers informed Irene that the trial will not go on in the open court on June 11, 2008. Instead the defence lawyers, the prosecution and the judge will meet in chambers for case management. Please do not go to the court on June 11, 2008 The trial will not go on. . It will only be case management in chambers. Basically, with this development of the notes being discovered, the court needs to see how to proceed with the trial. How long more does Irene need to wait for justice is anyone’s guess. We understand that the whole handwritten notes of the Magistrate who precided over Irene’s trial is neither legible nor readable. Thus the Judge may request for the notes of evidence to be typed out. And this is over 4000 pages! Now with this episode where after 5 years from date of judgement, the notes have not been typed, it can take months or years for the appeal to be concluded. Irene and Tenaganita wait and wait for justice. Meanwhile Irene’s passport is held by the courts and the bail money is tied up. What is justice? Where is it? How will it be rendered? And when? We don’t know.. But what we know is JUSTICE DELAYED, IS JUSTICE DENIED! We thank you for all the support given during the last 13 years. It has been a very, very long road. Please continue the support especially for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers who remain unrecognized and continue to be arrested and incarcerated inhumanly in our detention centers. Aegile Fernandez
_______________________________ TENAGANITA SDN BHD |