KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -- Malaysia sent over 1,000 Myanmar nationals back to their strife-torn homeland on Tuesday despite a court order to halt the deportation, pending a petition by rights groups to suspend a plan they say could endanger the deportees' lives.
The 1,086 Myanmar citizens were sent back on three navy ships sent by Myanmar's military, which seized power in a Feb. 1 coup, sparking weeks of protests from pro-democracy activists. Malaysia had initially said it would deport 1,200.