The government will conduct a postmortem on the Federal Court decision which found the 60-day detention of five reformasi activists under the Internal Security Act (ISA) as unlawful.

The issue was raised in today's weekly cabinet meeting but the ministers decided to defer discussion to wait for Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's return from overseas next week.

The discussion will be on the grounds of judgment which ruled that the police had acted in bad faith when detaining and interrogating the five during the initial detention period.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Rais Yatim said he will talk to Abdullah when he returns from New York on Sept 18.

Malaysians duped

"The government is concerned over why it lost this case. Therefore, it is only natural that we analyse the judgment to see where we went wrong," he said when contacted.

"Being in charge of law, I have to discuss the legal implications of the decision," added Rais.

Asked whether he will raise the issue of securing the release of the five detainees, he replied: "That is completely within the powers of the home minister and I do not wish to speculate on the outcome now."

Last Tuesday, the four-member Federal Court panel allowed the appeals by the five who were detained last year for allegedly plotting to topple the government through militant means.

Keadilan leaders Tian Chua, Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor and Saari Sungib, malaysiakini columnist-cum-filmmaker Hishamuddin Rais and Free Anwar Campaign director Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin applied for a writ of habeas corpus to declare their detention as unlawful.

Raja Petra was released before the expiry of the 60-day period while Mohd Ezam is now serving a two-year jail term at the Kajang prison after he was found guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act last month.

The rest, including two other Keadilan leaders, Dr Badrulamin Bahron and Lokman Noor Adam, are undergoing a two-year detention at the Kamunting Detention Centre in Perak.

Although not named in the appeal, their lawyer R Sivarasa had explained that the decision applied to the duo as well since they were detained for the same reason and subjected to similar circumstances.

However, the Federal Court decision was criticised as being 'incomplete' because it precluded the two-year detention order issued by the home minister.

Meanwhile, Keadilan Youth deputy chief Muhammad Zahid Md Arip accused the home minister of not respecting the Federal Court decision.

"Based on the court ruling, Abdullah has clearly abused his power and duped Malaysians into believing that Keadilan leaders detained under the ISA were a threat to national security," he said in a statement today.

"In fact, if he continues to detain them, Keadilan Youth will consider taking the matter to the international level, particularly to the United Nations Human Rights Commission," he added.

Muhammad Zahid said such action was necessary for the world community to know how Malaysian leaders "do not respect laws and are always abusing their powers for political gain".

Precedent ignored

In a related development, National Human Rights Society (Hakam) president Ramdas Tikamdas demanded that Abdullah release the five detainees "immediately and unconditionally".

"The government should demonstrate that it is prepared to respect the decision of the highest court in the land and is committed to the rule of law," he said in a statement.

"The technical argument that the unlawful initial 60-day detention does not automatically poison the ministerial order for (another) two years is simply against the sense of justice of the ordinary person."

He cited the Supreme Court decision in the case of Theresa Lim resulting from the 1987 Ops Lalang which stated that the "police power of arrest and detention under section 73" cannot be separated from the ministerial power "under section 8" of the ISA.

Ramdas urged Abdullah to exercise his discretionary powers to remedy the wrong without delay and do the "honourable and lawful thing" by publicly apologising to the five detainees and returning them their liberty.

On Monday, Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) chairperson Abu Talib Othman said the Federal Court decision was a lesson for detaining authorities, and hoped the police would heed the advice in the judgment.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, on the other hand, said the ruling was proof of the judiciary's independence and spoke volumes in deflecting unjustified and lopsided views against Malaysian courts.