KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia's leading human rights activist, charged with falsely accusing police of torturing and killing illegal immigrants, took the stand for the first time Wednesday in the longest criminal trial in the country's history.
Irene Fernandez, who runs a human rights group, Tenaganita, was arrested after publishing a 48-page investigative report in August 1995 that exposed deaths of illegal immigrants allegedly from malnutrition and torture in Malaysian detention camps.Since June 1996, Fernandez, 52, has spent two weeks of almost every month silently watching the proceedings in a Kuala Lumpur courthouse.
Her report, based on interviews with more than 300 former detainees, accused police of beating detainees and sexually abusing women, denying people medical help and punishing those who asked for drinking water by forcing them to stand for hours baking in the sun.
The government confirmed 98 detainees died but said they died of diseases tracked in from their homelands.
Fernandez mostly testified to her extensive experience as a human rights activist.
New York-based Human Rights Watch named her Human Rights Monitor for Asia in 1996, Amnesty International has closely followed her current case, and she was named one of the world's 28 human rights defenders during last year's 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Fernandez said.
Even her prime antagonist, the Malaysian police force, had once called on Fernandez to train their officers in handling domestic violence cases, she said.
If convicted, she faces up to three years in jail.
The judge Wednesday dismissed Fernandez' request to throw the case out because 36 potential witnesses had been deported.
Deputy Prime Minister Ibrahim Anwar, charged with abuse of power and sexual misconduct, has referred to his trial as a "kangaroo court."