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Police confirmation of ISA arrest brings tally to 10

The police confirmed this afternoon that human rights activist Badaruddin Ismail, 56, was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) this morning, raising the number of reformasi activists detained under the Act in the past two weeks to 10.

A spokesperson from the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur, confirmed the arrest was made under the ISA, which allows indefinite detention without trial.

Badaruddin, popularly known as Pak Din, was nabbed this morning while he was having breakfast near his home in Hulu Kelang, Selangor.

Pak Din's arrest under the ISA drew immediate rebuke from human rights group Suaram where he is a secretariat member.

"The arrest is an indication of an ongoing crackdown on political dissent by the government and are no longer confined to opposition political activists or organisers of the April 14 demonstrations," said Suaram executive director Cynthia Gabriel.

Gabriel said that human right defenders who work tirelessly to promote basic human rights in Malaysia are also targets.

She said that Pak Din was the second member of Suaram who had been arrested in this latest round of police swoop, the other being Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua who was detained on April 10 along with six others. Two other Keadilan Youth leaders were detained in the past six days.

Gabriel said Pak Din joined Suaram in 1998 and was part of the urgent arrest committee as well as the documentation and monitoring section.

"He was working to produce a book on the proceedings of the Human Rights Commission inquiry into police brutality on Kesas Highway on Nov 5 last year when he was arrested," she added.

'Authoritarian regime'

Gabriel said that the use of the ISA to detain the 10 revealed "an authoritarian regime terrified by its own shadows, which is becoming increasingly reckless, using whatever repressive tools at its disposal to clamp down on dissent".

"The regime manufactures incredulous lies and fantasies since it cannot justify detention without trial," she said, and called for the immediate and unconditional release of Pak Din and the other nine detainees.

After the arrest of the first seven, Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai revealed that they were detained in the interest of national security as they formed part of a secret cell that was planning to topple the government through militant means and mass street demonstrations.

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