The wife of a Keadilan leader held under the Internal Security Act urged the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) to intervene and ensure that her husbands detention is brought to an end.

Noor Farahin Ahmat, wife of Keadilan Supreme Council member Lokman Noor Adam, in a letter to Suhakam today, said she was concerned about her husbands health, especially his drastic weight loss.

She added her husband had lost about 20kg since he was first detained last June and that he had blood in his urine.

I am now concerned that he and his five comrades are planning to launch a hunger strike soon.

This hunger strike is to protest their one-year detention without trial and to demand that they either be brought to trial or released without further delay, she said.

Noor Farahin also revealed that her husband and the other five detainees have staged intermittent hunger strikes since last year.

The six, including Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua and Youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor, are serving a two-year detention at the Kamunting Detention Camp in Perak for allegedly plotting to topple the government through militant means.

Their legal application against the ISA arrests was dismissed by the High Court on the grounds that it had no jurisdiction over the matter. Their appeal is now being heard by the Federal Court.

Noor Farahin said if her husband and the others were allowed to continue their hunger strike, it might affect their health or even endanger their lives.

I appeal to Suhakam to urge the Home Affairs Ministry to end the detention and bring my husband, plus the others, to trial before a court of law, or free them immediately if there is no proof that they have committed any crime.

Family barred

Meanwhile, Noor Farahin also complained that Kamunting detention centre officials had barred Lokmans father Adam Ali and brother, Ahmad Zaini, from visiting him earlier this year.

According to her the officials said the duo did not have their family verification card.

My father-in-law is quite ill, which makes it difficult for him to travel all the way from Kluang, Johor, to visit my husband; who is eight hours away. And my brother-in-law, who has not met my husband for some years, lives in Singapore.

The purpose of the card is to verify members of the detainees family. However, considering that my father-in-law had visited my husband once before and his name plus that of other members of the family are already on record, there is no reason why their identity could not be verified through their identity cards, she added.