The Home Ministry is contesting the Shah Alam High Court’s ruling which saw blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin being released from detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) last Friday.

Based on a check at the court registry, the appeal was filed yesterday about 3.30pm.

The Federal Court will hear the appeal at a date to be fixed after it obtains the notes of proceedings from the lower court.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar had earlier expressed disappointment with the ruling, and that the ministry would find out how the court interpreted the minister’s discretionary power, as provided in the ISA.

raja petra and judiciary Raja Petra’s detention was deemed unlawful after Judge Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad found that the minister had not followed proper procedure in issuing the two-year detention order in September.

According to the ministerial order, Raja Petra was detained because he owned and operated the Malaysia Today website and for:

• publishing his articles and readers' comments intentionally and recklessly which were critical and insulted Muslims, affecting the purity of the religion and the personality of Prophet Muhammad; and

• publishing articles deemed defamatory or false concerning Malaysia's leaders, with the intention of undermining public confidence and inciting hatred against the government; the articles are alleged to be a threat to national security.

The articles in question were 'Malays, the Enemy of Islam', 'Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell', 'I promise to be a good, non-hypocritical Muslim' and 'Not all Arabs are descendents of the Prophet'.

In his judgment , Syed Ahmad Helmy said the court had looked into two factors, namely the constitutionality of the Act and whether the home minister acted correctly within his jurisdiction to issue the order.

raja petra kamaruddin habeas corpus case 071108 12 He said Section 8(b) of the ISA indicated that those issued with the detention order by the minister might not be allowed judicial review. However, the court could hear such an application if there were instances of possible abuse of power.

"I agree the formulation of the ISA was to protect the security of the nation and is constitutional. However, the court can review the detention order if it finds instances where the minister could have acted beyond his jurisdiction to issue the two-year detention order,” he ruled.

Syed Ahmad Helmy also said there was no relevance for the minister to issue the order against Raja Petra on the basis of mala fide (bad faith), and that the minister had acted ultra vires (beyond his powers) in issuing the detention order”.

The judge ordered that Raja Petra be produced in court that evening so that he could be released. The blogger was then being held at the Kamunting detention camp in Perak.