Sejahratul Dursina, the first woman detained for alleged militant activities under the Internal Security Act, was arrested last month to pressure her husband Yazid Sufaat to admit to the police charges leveled against him.

Her mother, Tuminah Kasmuri, 58, said this in a habeas corpus application filed at the Shah Alam High Court at 3.30pm today.

She is seeking for the release of Sejahratul, also known as Chomel Mohamad, on the ground that her arrest was politically motivated and done in bad faith.The date of hearing has yet to be fixed.

Tuminah named the Malaysian government, Home Affairs Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai as respondents in her 12-page affidavit, claiming that "...[They] want to justify the detention of Yazid".

She said a day after her daughter's arrest, Yazid who has been placed at the Kamunting detention centre in Perak since late January was brought to a remand centre in Kuala Lumpur for unknown reasons.

Yazid, an alleged al-Qaeda operative, is serving a two-year detention order under the ISA. He was among the 23 people rounded up by the police and detained under the controversial security law which permits indefinite detention without trial since late last year.

They were alleged to be involved in the Malaysian Mujahidin Group (KMM), said to be part of a regional network planning to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state in their respective countries.

Yazid strongly denied the allegations before a three-member review panel at a defence hearing early last month. Among the allegations was that he hosted two al-Qaeda terrorists at his condominium in Kuala Lumpur in 2000, and bought explosives for sectarian violence against Christians in Indonesia.

Not armed activities

He told the review panel that he was not involved in any armed activities but had participated with his wife in religious classes and in a registered Islamic group. Nearly all the alleged KMM detainees were from the same group.

Sejahratul, 37, an executive director of a local computer company, and her husband Yazid, 38, a former army captain and later a pathologist, are both graduates from a university in United States. The couple have four children.

Sejahratul was among a group of 14 people arrested for their alleged involvement in KMM on April 17.

Tuminah claimed that her daughter was arrested for organising wives and families of other alleged KMM members to fight for the release of the detainees.

"Her arrest was mala fide (done in bad faith) and politically motivated," Tuminah claimed.

She argued that since her daughter has been cooperative in providing whatever information she had to the police after Yazid's arrest, there was no basis for the authorities to claim that the arrest was to facilitate their investigation.

She said she is worried that her daughter may have been tortured by police during interrogation as reported by many domestic and international human rights groups.

"Women are not exempted from this mental and physical torture as evident in the statements by those who were detained under the ISA in the 1987 Operasi Lalang," she said.

She was referring to four woman activists — Dr Cecilia Ng, Lim Chin Chin, Dr Chee Heng Leng, and Irene Xavier — who endured inhumane treatments that included solitary confinement, physical abuse, and prolonged hours of interrogation during their detention.

No legal access

Tuminah said the lawyers have yet to gain any legal access to Sejahratul despite a written request which was submitted to IGP Norian Mai on May 3.

"This has violated Sejahratul's rights for defence and to challenge the lawfulness of her arrest as provided under the Federal Constitution," she said.

The detainee "looked pale and was quiet" when she was visited by her parents and children during a family visit on April 26, added the mother.

"She only said she had been instructed by police not to talk or discuss about her arrest ... we don't even know where she is now," said Tuminah.

Meanwhile, lawyer Edmund Bon told malaysiakini that he was surprised that the date of first hearing was not fixed today as the habeas corpus application was a matter of urgency.

Habeas corpus is a writ of law issued to compel the authorities to bring a party before the court.

"I waited for an hour but I was told that I could not meet the registrar (who is in charge of fixing the date) because the office needed to process the document," he said.

Asked if Sejahratul had a strong case, Bon said the ISA is still "unsettled" as there are many constitutional arguments surrounding the use of the law. "It [the decision] depends on how the judge interpret the law."

Last year, Keadilan leaders Abdul Ghani Haron and N Gobalakrishnan, who were among the 10 pro-reform figures arrested by police under the ISA in April and had applied for habeas corpus , were ordered to be released by the Shah Alam High Court judge Hishamuddin Yunus in a landmark ruling.

Two other detainees were freed unconditionally. The remaining six were however sent to the Kamunting detention centre and their application for habeas corpus was struck out by the Kuala Lumpur High Court. The six appealed and are expecting a judgment from the Federal Court.