The DAP MP said while abolishing the law should be the end goal, the priority at the moment should be suspending the law immediately.
“These are the reforms that we have promised and (yet) we are delaying them,” he said at a press conference at the Penang DAP headquarters here today.
Rayer also urged DAP ministers, particularly party chairman and digital minister Gobind Singh Deo, to raise this at the next Cabinet meeting.
“I appeal to my own government, the prime minister, and Gobind, who has spoken up against this law, please discuss Sosma’s suspension until its reforms are ready and tabled in Parliament for debate,” he said.
Joining Rayer at the press conference were nine family members of Sosma detainees who were arrested on suspicion of being involved in organised crime.
The lawyer said one of the cases involved R Gobinath, 36, who was first arrested by police on Nov 27.
Police had sought to remand him at the magistrates’ courts in Kulim, Alor Setar and Sungai Petani, but all three rejected the police’s application after finding no solid grounds for him to be remanded.
However, he was rearrested on Dec 4 under Sosma for alleged involvement in organised crime.
Section 4(5) of Sosma allows the police to detain suspects for up to 28 days without a court remand order, bypassing normal court oversight.
‘’It is a clear-cut case of abuse (of the law) that I want both the prime minister and home minister Saifuddin (Nasution Ismail) to take note of,” said Rayer.
He also shared several cases he had handled in which initial charges under Sosma were later amended to offences under the Societies Act 1966 after the accused were asked to plead guilty, which he said further highlighted the abuse of the law.
In July, Saifuddin said a policy paper proposing amendments to Sosma would be presented to the Cabinet in August, with allowing bail for certain offences among key reforms being considered.
The review was also supposed to examine the 28-day detention rule, including the possibility of dividing it into shorter phases, as well as Section 30 of the Act, which mandates that acquitted detainees remain in custody pending an appeal.
Sosma was enforced in 2012 by Najib Razak’s administration after the Internal Security Act was abolished the same year.