PETALING JAYA: Activist and graphic artist Fahmi Reza has issued a letter of demand to the authorities after being prevented from travelling abroad recently, despite no official travel ban in place.
The letter, dated June 13 and shared on Fahmi’s social media pages, was addressed to Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain, immigration director-general Zakaria Shaaban, and home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
According to his lawyer, Yohendra Nadarajan, Fahmi was stopped at KLIA Terminal 2 on June 7 while trying to board a flight to Singapore. Immigration officials at the airport had reportedly told Fahmi to check with Bukit Aman on the travel restriction.
The next day, Razarudin was reported as saying there was no travel ban on Fahmi but that his name had been placed on an “internal movement monitoring list for investigation purposes”.
Yohendra said that there is no basis under the law for Fahmi to be added to such a list, adding that Fahmi had previously been told, in 2022 when renewing his passport, that his name had already been removed from any such list.
He added that checks on the immigration department’s website showed conflicting information, with the Bahasa Melayu version stating he was restricted, but the English version stating he was not.
For the record, the department has since acknowledged the discrepancy and said it was conducting a technical review.
“No authority has taken responsibility for the violation of our client’s rights on June 7,” Yohendra said.
He added that Fahmi is demanding the removal of his name from all monitoring lists, the lifting of any travel restrictions, and compensation, with the amount to be determined.
“If no response is received within seven days from the date of this letter, we will assume the authorities have chosen to maintain our client’s name on the listing and a travel restriction is still in effect,” he said.
FMT has reached out to Razarudin, Zakaria and Saifuddin for comment.
