Eight students have been evicted from their residential colleges after participating in a demonstration to protest the closure of a student shop on campus.

The Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Labuan campus (Umskal) students were kicked out after admitting to participating in a February demonstration at a disciplinary proceeding under the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 yesterday.

Umskal's Pro-Mahasiswa student movement chairperson Jamhuri Mohamed said the verdict was delivered after a five-hour hearing chaired by UMS academic vice chancellor Shariff Abd Kadir S Omang.

Jamhuri said that seven other students plead not guilty and are awaiting further hearing.

The students had demonstrated against the university in front of the administrative building when the university decided to take back a shoplot from which they had been operating a small business on campus.

The shop has been operated by the student mosque committee for the past six years.

According to Jamhuri, the discplinary proceedings are unconstitutional and urges the university to recant all action and pending action on the students involved.

“The university should realise that the charge breaches the Federal Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.

“The university also failed to respect the Court of Appeal's recent judgement that Section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act (which criminalises assembly without prior notice) as unconstitutional as it constitution guarantees the right of assembly,” he said in a statement.