The government today called for a fair trial for two Malaysians who are part of a group of al-Qaeda suspects transferred from covert CIA custody to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"It is important that they get a fair trial," Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was quoted as saying by the state Bernama news agency.

Abdullah also said he had asked Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar to get information from Malaysia's embassy in Washington on the two Malaysians.

"I have instructed Syed Hamid to get in touch with our people in Washington to check what is happening," he said.

US President George W Bush yesterday announced 14 suspects who were in covert CIA custody had been transferred to the Guantanamo Bay to be tried by military commissions.

Part of second wave

The group includes the two Malaysians named as Zubair and Mohammed Nazir Lep, otherwise known as Lillie.

Bush's announcement was the first confirmation the US Central Intelligence Agency covertly held prisoners overseas.

Lillie was allegedly the key aide to Hambali, the operational mastermind of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

He was involved in the Jakarta Marriott Hotel blast in 2003 and slated to be a suicide operative for a second wave of al-Qaeda attack targeting Los Angeles, according to US intelligence.

Zubair is allegedly a Malaysian al-Qaeda and JI member who served under Hambali, and assisted in major JI operations.

He was also lined up to be an operative in the planned al-Qaeda strike against Los Angeles.

AI 'very disturbed'

Amnesty International Malaysia said in a statement today it was "very disturbed" by their detention.

"We call on the Malaysian government to seek assurances that both the detainees would not be tortured in Guantanamo and to investigate their 'secret detention'," said its executive director Josef Roy Benedict.

Malaysia has arrested more than 80 alleged Islamic militants, who have been held under laws which allow for detention without trial.

Abdullah in February had urged the US to shut down Guantanamo Bay, saying it was regarded as a torture centre.