(Lanka-e-News -11.March.2016, 11.00PM) ) the acquittal of leading human rights defender Lena Hendry on charges of breaching Malaysia’s draconian censorship laws has been welcomed by film-makers, actors and artists around the world.
Ms Hendry was accused of screening the award-winning documentary No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka – a film about human rights abuses at the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war – to an invited audience in July 2013. The screening was raided by 30 officials from the Malaysian Home Ministry, the Police and Immigration Officials. She was charged with showing the film without approval from Malaysia’s Censorship Board.
But yesterday Magistrate Mohd. Rehan Mohd. Aris ruled that the prosecution failed to establish a “prima facie” case against Hendry and acquitted her.
The news was welcomed by No Fire Zone director Callum Macrae who described the charges against Lena as “a disgrace”. “The truth about the terrible crimes committed at the end of the war in Sri Lanka is at last beginning to emerge. The decision of the Malaysian authorities to try to silence this film and brave human rights defenders like Lena.”
Last year 100 leading film-makers, writers, artists and lawyers from around the world signed an open letter calling on the Malaysian government to drop the charges against Ms Hendry, who is from Malaysian human rights NGO Pusat KOMAS. If found guilty, she faced up to three years in jail.
The signatories of the letter included many well-known actors, directors and artists from the US, India, Malaysia and the UK, including the rapper M.I.A; Grammy Award winning Angelique Kidjo; actor Greg Wise; writers from Naomi Klein to Meena Kandasamy; and No Fire Zone director, BAFTA and Emmy nominee Callum Macrae.
By
Sophie
from tpr media
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by (2016-03-11 18:33:29)
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