232 men who were arrested on 24/10/98 in connection with the "Reformasi" protests were brought before Magistrate Azhaniz for remand. The police applied for 14 days remand to be granted for purposes of investigations.

The reasons that they gave was that they needed time to complete their investigations, to identify the organisers of the illegal assembly, to record statements of independent witnesses, to inquire into the backgroud of the suspects and to refer to the Deputy Public Prosecutor.

The 232 suspects were represented by a team of lawyers from the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre, Kuala Lumpur. The lawyers were earlier denied access and finally managed to get access to the said suspects at about 3.30pm. They had the opportunity to get instructions from the suspects. The remand application ended at about 2.00am on 26/10/98.

At the end of the remand hearing, the Magistrate refused to grant remand to 52 persons and they were ordered to be released. The remaining 180 persons were remanded for three days, that is from 25/10/98 until 27/10/98.

Among those that were released were Hishamuddin Rais, a former student activist, and Ronald Takashi, a stringer with AFP. Ahmad Bongsu, the son of the famous Hamid Tuah who was a land rights activist who made the headlines in the early 1970s, were among those that continue to be held in remand.All the suspects are being held in lock-ups in four police stations, being the Tun H.S.Lee station (near the Stadium Negara), the Dang Wangi station (also known as the Campbell police station), Jalan Pantai station and the Cheras police station.

The suspects were arrested and detained for the commission of an offence of illegal assembly (s.27 Police Act) and for rioting (s.158 Penal Code).

On 27/10/98, the suspects will most probably be charged. Alternatively the police may make an application for an extension of the remand period. Under s.117 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the police can detain a person for a period of up to 14 days from the date of arrest, subject to the order of Magistrate.

The fate of those remaining in detention is still a question mark.

Many of the suspects were beaten. Some of them had stitches on their head. One had about 5 stictches.

All women and young persons who were also arrested were released earlier on 25/10/98. The women were held at the wangsa Maju Police Station, whilst the young persons were held at the Tun H.S. Lee Police Station. The 232 adult male suspects have been held at the Pusat Latihan Polis (Police Training Centre) since their arrest on 24/10/98.