Malaysia was urged on Friday to repeal its tough preventive security laws by a group of UN officials investigating claims of abuse and torture of detainees in police custody.

The officials, on a two-week mission in the Southeast Asian nation, said "virtually all" detainees interviewed said they were subjected to torture in order to obtain confessions while in police custody.

NONE The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a team under the UN Human Rights Council of which Malaysia is a member, is probing those held under preventive laws, illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers.

"A few indicated they have been beaten up with weapons or tools. More people were punched, kicked or had dirty water thrown on them," El Hadji Malick Sow, the group's chairman-rapporteur, told reporters.

"(Torture) is not necessarily physical violence, some were held in small rooms without access to food," he said, adding many of the detainees were not informed of their right to consult a lawyer or contact their family.

The group urged Malaysia to abolish its preventive security laws, including the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA) which allows for indefinite detention with trial, saying they affect the detainee's right to freedom.

The ISA, which dates back to the British colonial era, was originally aimed at communist insurgents but has since been used against alleged terrorists and political opponents.

Detainees: Prisons better

Rights groups say there are currently 15 individuals being held under the ISA after a large number were released as part of Prime Minister Najib Razak's reform agenda when he took power in April last year.

"We recommend to the government for the laws to be abolished," Sow said after presenting the mission's initial findings.

It also found a main detention centre holding illegal immigrants overcrowded, with poor sanitation and inadequate medical facilities while reporting the country's prisons were in "good condition."

"You may laugh but we have heard many detainees tell us they prefer to be in prison than police custody or at an immigration detention centre," he said.

The group will present its final report to the UN Human Rights Council in March next year.

- AFP