MP SPEAKS | The Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 or popularly known as Sosma is essentially a procedural law. It seeks to regulate a criminal trial of an offender being charged for serious crimes such as terrorism.

If one is charged for crimes that are not security-related in nature, he or she is normally tried under the ordinary piece of procedural legislation, such as the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

Unlike Sosma, the CPC is not draconian and repressive legislation.

Recently, the home minister sought to extend the application of Section 4(5) of Sosma.

In a nutshell, Subsection 5 empowers the police to detain any Sosma detainee for a period of 28 days for the purpose of completing the investigation....