The hearing into the RM83 million civil suit filed by 33 local human rights activists and journalists against the government and police over their wrongful detention during the Second Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (Apcet II) in 1996 was postponed today.

Kuala Lumpur High Court Justice Wan Adnan Muhamad granted the adjournment application made by senior federal counsel Kamaludin Mohd Said who was attending another hearing in Seremban. Federal counsel Morhaji Selamat appeared for Kamaludin.

"We had no objection to the application," said the plaintiffs' counsel M Moganambal when contacted by malaysiakini later.

The next hearing dates have been fixed for Nov 21 and 22.

Apcet II was organised to discuss human rights abuses in East Timor and the troubled territory's struggle for independence from Indonesia.

As the conference was about to begin, 400 members from the Umno Youth-led Barisan Bertindak Rakyat Malaysia, or Malaysia's People's Action Front, allegedly broke down the conference hall's doors, threw chairs and verbally and physically abused the participants.