Malaysia
Police to reroute roads in Brickfields after #TangkapAzamBaki organisers announce Bangsar as new rally location
Police are seen diverting traffic away from new rally location at Jalan Maarof in Bangsar January 22, 2022. u00e2u20acu2022 Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — City police will be rerouting roads around Brickfields after the #TangkapAzamBaki organisers announced LRT Bangsar as its new rally location yesterday.

Police had initially announced road diversions on six major roads in the city this morning, and warned Malaysians not to join the assembly which was earlier planned to be held in the city centre.

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"The police received latest information last night and also noticed a post that has spread on social media that there are several individuals and parties who will organise a rally on January 22, 2022 at 11.00 am at the Bangsar LRT station. This assembly clearly violates the laws in force, namely Regulation 9 (Prohibition of Marching) and Regulation 10 (Control of Assembly), Regulations ― Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Measures in Local Areas of Infection) (National Rehabilitation Plan) 2021.

"The police did not receive any notification of the assembly from any individual or party as outlined in the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) 2012 where the organisers must inform the police,” Brickfields district police chief, Assistant Commissioner (ACP) Amihizam Abdul Shukor said in a statement last night.

He announced that the roads affected are; Jalan Bangsar, Jalan Bangsar Utama, Jalan Travers heading to Jalan Bangsar, Jalan Rakyat heading to Jalan Bangsar, Jalan Maarof heading to Jalan Bangsar.

Amihizam said that that the road diversion would begin at 7am today.

"Here, I would like to take this opportunity to advise the public who have any business in Kuala Lumpur city, especially in the Bangsar LRT area and the surrounding area, that they need to plan their journey and business ― especially those involving the routes and time,” he said.

Amihizam said that the police would be taking stern action against those who violate the order and continue to organise or join any public gatherings.

The group behind the movement — Catch Azam Baki — had among others demanded that immediate action be taken against MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki and for reforms at the MACC, such as putting it under Parliament.

The group said its demands were justified as formal investigations into the matter, including a parliamentary select committee hearing, appeared to be making no progress.

Those unable to join the protest could fly a black flag and use the hashtag #TangkapAzamBaki and #RombakSPRM on social media to indicate their support, the group said.

The "Catch Azam Baki” movement had on January 18, announced that it would be organising the peaceful street protest, citing disappointment over the apparent inaction against Azam, over his share trading saga.

In a statement, the movement, made up of civil societies and political parties, had initially announced that the protest will take place at 11am today, in front of the Sogo shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur.

The movement also chided Azam for trying to avoid addressing "structural issues” by refusing to cooperate with the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) for Agencies under the Prime Minister’s Department on his stock purchasing activities.

It added that Azam had instead decided to file a RM10 million lawsuit against Lalitha Kunaratnam, who is a Malaysian correspondent with the Asia-based Independent News Service, for exposing the details of said activities in two reports.

News portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) reported that, a ceramah held last night was raided by the police and a few arrests made, according to rally organisers.

The report said the briefing was held at a restaurant in Bangsar in preparation for the street protest scheduled to take place below the LRT station in Jalan Bangsar this morning.

The organisers said on Twitter that a few attendees at the ceramah were also arrested, while some attendees claimed the police stopped them from leaving the restaurant after the briefing.

They were later released after having their statements recorded.

Regulator Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) had on January 19, said it decided that a law — which only allows share trading accounts to be used by the person benefiting from it or which disallows proxy trading — had not been violated by Azam, as independent evidence from an inquiry showed that he had control of and operated his trading account by giving instructions to buy, sell and trade shares from the account.

The SC had launched the investigation after Azam previously publicly declared in a press conference that his share trading account was used by his brother to buy shares ― a move widely perceived as proxy trading by the public.

The SC’s probe found there to be no proxy trading despite Azam previously admitting that he had let his brother use his account.

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