For newly released political prisoner Tian Chua, the toughest part of his two-year ordeal of detention without trial, under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA), was the period he was held in solitary confinement - without access to lawyers, family or doctors.

"The solitary confinement was the most torturous. It was killing me,"said the Keadilan vice- president said in an interview after he was released this month.

"I was blindfolded and handcuffed every time I left the cell. I could only hear the sounds of others, but could not see them.