Malaysia: Human rights lawyer charged with defamation over migrant workers rights post on blog
Event- Country
- Malaysia
- Initial Date
- Feb 8, 2011
- Final Date
- Aug 25, 2011
- Event Description
Mr. Charles Hector Fernandez, known as Charles Hector, is a well known human rights activist, Malaysian lawyer and a former member of the Malaysian Bar Council.Mr. Hector also voices many of the abuses that migrant workers are facing on his blog which he uses as a tool for advocating for legal changes, with the aim to improve the human rights and labor rights situation in Malaysia. 8 and 9 February 2011 Mr. Charles Hector uploaded several posts on the grievances raised by 31 Burmese migrant workers. These workers were supplied by outsourcing agents to work at Asahi Kosei (M) Sdn. Bhd. The workers alleged that their wages were unlawfully deducted and monetary penalties were made for absences from work. When the workers sought for compensation and fair treatment, they were threatened with termination of employment and possible deportation back to Burma. The workers are paid by the outsourcing agents, even though Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin stated in 2010 that "employers ... should be responsible for their foreign workers. Outsourcing companies are only responsible for bringing them in. After that, employers must assume full responsibility." Before any posting was made on his blog, Mr. Hector sent an email to Asahi Kosei (M) Sdn. Bhd. for clarification and verification. The mail requested explicitly that "if there are anything that you would like to correct, kindly revert to me immediately. An urgent response would be appreciated. Failing to hear from you, I would take it that the allegations of the workers are true". The company did not respond and Mr. Hector went ahead and posted the complaints of the Burmese migrant workers on his blog, advocating for protection of the 31 workers in general and those workers who were facing immediate deportation in particular. 11 February 2011 A media statement signed by 77 organizations was issued, calling for Asahi Kosei (M) Sdn. Bhd. to respect the rights of the Burmese migrant workers. 14 February 2011 Mr. Hector received a letter from the law firm, T.S Teoh & Partners, on behalf of Asahi Kosei (M) Sdn. Bhd. in which they accused him of having"committed defamation" for publishing "untrue allegations" about Asahi Kosei (M) Sdn. Bhd. The company demanded Mr. Hector to pay 10 million Malaysian ringgit (3,309,600 USD) within seven days, to immediately withdraw the posts and to write an apology which should be published on his blog within 24 hours, and appear in all major English newspapers to be circulated nationwide within three days. 17 February 2011 Asahi Kosei (M) Sdn. Bhd. obtained an ex?parte injunction (a court order that orders a party to do or refrain from doing a certain act) requesting Mr. Hector to remove all the said blog posts immediately and to stop from making further public statements on his blog or other media about the legal action being taken against him and the plight of Burmese migrant workers. 21 February 2011 Mr. Hector received the injunction order and court documents and became aware for the first time that company had filed suit and applied for an order. 4 March 2011 A hearing was fixed with regard to the ex?parte injunction obtained by Asahi Kosei (M) Sdn. Bhd. and Mr. Hector's application to cancel this injunction. The injunction was not cancelled but was restricted to a holding over order, stopping Mr. Hector from discussing the case on his blog and his Twitter account. The Malaysian Bar Council sent lawyers to hold a watching brief for this hearing. 21 March 2011 Lawyers from both sides handed over their outline submissions, which were also given to the other party. The company's lawyer applied for the continuation of the holding over order until the next hearing date, which the Court granted. The Court fixed the trial on 19, 20 and 21 April 2011 and the next hearing date on 30 March 2011. 25 May 2011 In this hearing, Charles Hector's application to amend pleadings (the Defence and Counter Claim) was allowed. The decision on Charles Hector"s application to add the 31 Burmese migrant workers as parties to the suit was dismissed during a hearing on 10 June 2011. 16 June 2011 Mr. Hector appealed to the Court of Appeal regarding the decision not to add the 31 Burmese workers as parties to the suit and on 20 June 2011, he filed an application for a stay of proceedings in the High Court until after the appeal to the Court of Appeal is heard.The court dismissed Mr. Hector's application for a stay of proceedings at the High Court until after the appeal to the Court of Appeal. 27 June 2011 The Court decided to adjourn the trial following the application of Mr. Hector on the grounds that he is granted more time to prepare the case. The trial is now fixed on 24, 25 and 26 August 2011. 25 August A settlement was reached, Charles Hector will pay RM1 in costs and RM1 in damages to Asahi Kosei. A further condition is the publication of a half-page advertisement in The Star national daily newspaper and in the Nanyang Siang Pau national daily newspaper, cost 7000 USD
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Event Location
Latitude: 3.139
Longitude: 101.68685
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
Asahi Kosei (M) Sdn. Bhd., subsidiary of Asahi Kosei Japan Co. Ltd., filed a defamation law suit against Mr. Charles Hector, a Malaysian human rights lawyer, activist and blogger for raising concerns on his blog about alleged human rights and labour rights violations of 31 Burmese migrant workers.