Baljit Singh Sidhu said it is also wrong for politicians and the police to state that with the abolition of the provision from July 31, the country will be dominated by criminals.
“Sosma is only an arrest and trial procedure and is not a standalone statute,” he said. “It is tied to other penal laws like the Penal Code and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act.”
Baljit said the police could rely on preventive laws such as the Prevention of Crime Act, the Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measures) Act and the Prevention of Terrorism Act to check the escalation of serious crime.
“These laws can be utilised to maintain national security and public order,” he told FMT in response to former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan’s view that the country will be left vulnerable to security risks without the Sosma provision.
This follows the government’s failure in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday to extend the enforcement of sub-section 4(5) of Sosma for another five years beginning from July 31.
Sub-section 4(5) enables the police to detain a person suspected of being involved in terrorist activities for up to 28 days without trial.
Baljit said Sosma is a draconian procedural law as it stops the courts from also offering bail to suspects charged with serious crime.
“Bail powers must always be vested with the courts,” he said, adding that detainees were kept in prison until the conclusion of their appeals in the Federal Court.
Last night, Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said investigators will also use the Criminal Procedure Code to detain and remand suspects.
Police could hold suspects for a maximum of 14 days, after which they must be charged or freed.
Lawyer S Prekas said the preventive laws allowed police to detain suspects for up to 60 days for investigations.
“Based on advice, a board or the home minister could order suspects to be placed at a detention centre for up to two years or made restrictive residents between two and five years,” he said.
Prekas said yesterday’s failure in Parliament to extend the use of Sosma and recent Federal Court rulings to free those held under preventive laws only revealed that the police must enhance their quality of investigation.
“They must collect credible evidence and only after that, move in to detain suspects to complete their investigations,” he added.