Deputy Home Minister Zainal Abidin Zin was put in a spot today when families of the ISA 5 detainees exchanged words with him over his non-committal reply to the recent Federal Court ruling on the "unlawful" initial 60-day detention of the reformasi leaders.

He had earlier received on Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's behalf, a memorandum submitted by the families. Abdullah is due home tomorrow from the United Nations general assembly meet in US.

The memorandum handover at the Parliament lobby proceeded smoothly at first but both parties lost their cool when the families pressed the deputy minister for his stand on the matter.

The Federal Court in a habeas corpus hearing on Sept 6 ruled that the police had acted in "bad faith" in the arrest of the five reformasi leaders and that their initial 60-day ruling by the police was "unlawful".

Despite the decision � called "schizophrenic", among others, by critics � the detainees have not been set free as the court ruled that their subsequent two-year detention order signed by Abdullah was not covered in the habeas corpus application.

Rights groups have called for the group's immediate release and expectations have built up over the past few days in anticipation of Abdullah's return.

Yesterday, families of the detainees lodged a police report against Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai for allegedly providing "false and fabricated information" to Abdullah, which led to their incarceration under the ISA.

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