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Media Statement

Free the ISA detainees! Or charge them in court

ISA Aliran deplores the detention under the Internal Security Act of several opposition leaders and social activists yesterday.

By the latest available report, the detainees include the following:

  1. Tian Chua, Parti Keadilan Nasional vice-president
  2. Mohamad Ezam Mohd. Nor, Keadilan Youth president
  3. N Gobala Krishnan, Keadilan Youth secretary-general
  4. Saari Sungib, 'People's Memorandum' organising committee chairperson
  5. Hishamuddin Rais, media columnist and social activist, and,
  6. Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the international Free Anwar Campaign director.
  7. Abdul Ghani Harun, Keadilan Youth central committee member
There is no justification whatever for the use of the ISA to detain the leaders of a legal opposition party or social activists engaged in legitimate dissent

Dr Mahathir Mohamad's government is badly mistaken if it thinks that the people of Malaysia still believe that ISA detention is proof of the culpability, let alone guilt, of a detainee.

The ISA has been thoroughly discredited as an instrument of authoritarian rule. In re-using the ISA to detain political opponents and critics without trial, Dr Mahathir's government has merely exposed its continuing intolerance of legal, non-violent, and democratic opposition.

In the name of justice, human rights and the rule of law, Aliran calls upon the government to charge the detainees in an open court or immediately release all of them.


Aliran Executive Committee
11 April 2001