Saw the news on TV3 yesterday night. Buletin Utama started by saying “HINDRAF buat kecoh lagi”, but unfortunately, the video clip did not show any negative actions. There were crowd of about 50-60 people who wanted to enter the court room Of course, knowing TV3, you can’t take their news seriously. The news did not mention why people were crowding to enter nor the pre-and post-happenings after the video clip.
Malaysiakini covers it here.
A small commotion in the courtroom preceded today’s hearing when the case was moved to another court, but before the same judge.
Hindraf supporters were unhappy when they were not allowed into the new courtroom. A shouting match ensued between the supporters and the police, with Uthayakumar – wearing a white shirt and tattered blue pants – joining in.
Kapar MP S Manikavasagam was among those shouting, insisting that the police should stop “harrassing the supporters”.
A woman fainted in the ensuing disorder and was taken to a hospital in an ambulance. Surendran claimed she had been “elbowed” by a police officer.
However, the commotion died down after 20 minutes, when more supporters were allowed to enter the courtroom where they sat on the floor.
More than 100 Hindraf supporters – clad in orange T-shirts with slogans like ‘Abolish ISA’, ‘Keep walking’ and ‘Makkal sakthi’ – had gathered at the court complex since early this morning.
The Star covers the “commotion” here:
A commotion broke out at the entrance of the Criminal Sessions Court here when police barred Uthayakumar’s supporters from attending his sedition trial.
Earlier, when the hearing began at the Civil Sessions Court at 9am, the room was packed with 70 well-behaved supporters. How-ever, when the courtroom was changed to the Criminal Sessions Court just before 11am, police prevented the supporters from entering the court and a shouting match ensued.
A police officer had told the supporters that they needed to be registered to enter the courtroom but the latter countered they had the right to enter an open court.
NST said that it was a circus:
It was a circus on the first day of Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader P. Uthayakumar’s sedition trial yesterday. A woman fainted in the courtroom after she was allegedly roughed up while a pen was thrown at a police officer’s head.
The commotion began about 11am when proceedings stood down.
The proceedings were supposed to be heard in Civil Sessions 6, but the venue was changed to Sessions 6 Criminal.
Both are on the third floor. About 100 supporters squeezed their way into the courtroom.
As they were waiting for hearing to resume in the second courtroom, Uthayakumar’s counsel, N. Surendran, alleged that a police officer had grabbed a woman by the neck during a scuffle, causing her to faint.The woman was taken to a room and an ambulance called. She was sent to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
Soon after, riled-up supporters began chanting and calling out Uthayakumar’s name.
A police officer tried to calm them down but a pen was thrown at him. The officer remained calm and told them to respect the court.
Uthayakumar, who was in the dock, also tried to calm his supporters. The 47-year-old lawyer, who was wearing a white shirt, torn blue pants and a pair of flip-flops, looked unkempt with his thick beard.
Despite looking like a “vagrant”, he was in a cheery mood.
The case of Uthaya alleged to published a seditious letter to British PM is postponed till next year February.
Photos of the events at the court is over here.