SHAH ALAM, 31 Mar: One of the founders of Parti Keadilan and human rights activist, Irene Fernandez, 67, died at 10.58am today, according to a tweet by Keadilan Untuk Semua (Justice For All).
Irene Fernandez is a PKR politician and an activist for foreign workers affairs in Malaysia, who is also the founder and executive director of the non-governmental organisation Tenaganita Sdn Bhd.
She was a Malaysian woman who was famous for daring to defend human rights such as the rights of foreign workers in Malaysia.
In 1995, she publicly exposed to the public the bad conditions at Immigration detention centres in a memorandum titled ‘Abuse, Torture and Dehumanised Conditions of Migrant Workers in Detention Centres’.
Following the offense of maliciously publishing false news, the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate’s Court sentenced her to 12 years in prison under Section 8A (1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.
But on 24 November 2008, Justice Datuk Mohamed Apandi Ali at the Kuala Lumpur High Court acquitted Irene Fernandez after setting aside her conviction for the offence of publishing the news.
During the 1999 Malaysian General Election, Irene represented PKR and contested in the parliamentary constituency of P97 – Subang, Selangor, which had 93,177 voters.
