PETALING JAYA: A businessman detained under the Prevention of Crime Act (Poca) for one-and-a-half years over alleged links to an online gambling syndicate has been released.
Kuala Lumpur High Court judicial commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain ruled on Wednesday that the preventive detention against Alvin Goh was unlawful.
The Federal Court had earlier dismissed Goh’s habeas corpus application against his remand order, issued under Poca, twice since November 2020.
Goh again challenged the two-year detention order through a separate habeas corpus application, which the High Court allowed on Wednesday.
According to Malaysiakini, his lawyer, Marcus Lee, confirmed that Goh had been released from detention at Simpang Renggam, Johor.
Lee said the court held that, based on the authorities’ affidavit, the element of organised violence was absent.
Besides Lee, Goh’s legal team included former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram, Gobind Singh Deo, Jacky Loi, PG Cyril and Lim Jin Wen.
Senior federal counsel Muhammad Sinti and Farah Ezlin Yusop Khan represented the home ministry.
In November 2020, the Prevention of Crime Board under the home ministry had slapped Goh and another businessman, Zaidi Kanapiah, and two police officers with a two-year detention order under Poca over allegations that they were part of an online gambling syndicate.
Zaidi, better known as Addy Kana, and the two police officers won their appeal to challenge their detention in the Federal Court earlier this year. The court ruled that the detention was done in bad faith.
Meanwhile, Goh and his brother, Yeong Hui, have been charged with seven counts of money laundering amounting to RM2.14 million.
They are accused of receiving the proceeds from unlawful activities by two Chinese nationals – Wang Hangang and Feng Chuang – between Sept 9 and Nov 11, 2019.
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