A civil society activist said he and other colleagues were briefly detained by National Security Service (NSS) agents deployed at the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) on Wednesday afternoon.
Ter Manyang Gatwech, Executive Director of the Center for Peace and Advocacy (CPA), told Radio Tamazuj that the incident happened after parliament passed the controversial National Security Service Amendment Bill and the security personnel asked him who invited him to attend the parliamentary session.
“We were detained by the National Security for 40 minutes after the session today and they questioned us on who asked us to come and that is the reason. We told them this was a public hearing and everybody was allowed to attend. They said that civil society organizations, journalists, and activists are not allowed to enter to attend the session according to the order,” he narrated.
“We told them this is not the first time for us to come to attend such a session and that was the discussion between us and National Security personnel within the parliament because they took us to their office within the parliament. We strongly condemn this as CPA.”
Manyang criticized how the contentious Bill was passed, saying the powers of National Security to arrest without a warrant have been maintained in the amended Bill.
“Also, the passing of the Bill was not right because they already put everything including Section 54 and 55 and they also moved those powers to Section 57which is going to disturb the whole public,” he solemnly said.
Separately, civil society activist Edmund Yakani confirmed that several civil society members representing five organizations were detained for 40 minutes at the assembly.
Yakani strongly condemned the denial of civil society and media access to today’s parliamentary sitting.