KUALA LUMPUR: Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad and the two undergraduate students who were arrested over Saturday’s #KitaLawan rally have been released after the court denied police’s request to hold them under remand for further investigations. PKR organising secretary Fariz Musa, however, has been remanded for two days.

Lawyer Michelle Yesudas said magistrate Nurul Ain Abdul Rahim ordered the release of Khalid and the students yesterday afternoon.

At the remand centre in Jinjang here where the three had been held, lawyer Shanker Sundaram said the PAS lawmaker and the two undergraduates would be taken back to the Dang Wangi police district headquarters in the city to collect their belongings.

“Khalid was released because the police failed to furnish one of the police reports in their remand application. The magistrate was not really satisfied. The two students were mere bystanders, and the magistrate was satisfied with this,” Shanker said.

The two undergraduates are students at a public university. They were arrested on Saturday night in the vicinity of the Kuala Lumpur City Centre after the #KitaLawan protest, which had ended without incident at about 7pm.

Khalid was arrested at 3.20am while at home. He had led a group of marchers in the rally on Saturday from the PAS headquarters in Jalan Raja Laut.

Fariz, who is also a #KitaLawan secretariat member, was the first to be arrested on Saturday after the rally ended.

Lawyer Dinesh Muthal said police obtained a two-day remand order for him.

“For Fariz Musa, the IO (investigating officer) requested for a four-day remand for identification, to identify Fariz’s involvement in the rally and to complete the investigation.

“After all our arguments, the remand granted was for two days,” said Dinesh.

Fariz is being investigated under Section 143 of the Penal Code, the lawyer said, and added that the Sedition Act was not brought up during the remand hearing. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 30, 2015.