The Home Ministry today stressed that Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees were not being maltreated, a claim which arose from its refusal to allow the detainees to meet with their lawyers.

According to Bernama , Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung said the detainees were barred from meeting anyone during the 60-day investigation period only.

He added that once this period was over, they were free to meet and be visited by family members and lawyers.

By then, the detainees will be detained at the Kamunting detention centre in Taiping, Perak.

The deputy minister said this in response to a question from Senator Dr S Vijayaratnam at the Dewan Negara this morning.

The Gerakan leader had raised the question following allegations from certain quarters that the security law - which provides detention without trial - was cruel and transgressed human rights.

Chor said although the West had been critical of the ISA, they enacted similar laws following the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

95 detainees

Earlier, the deputy minister told the senators that there were 95 ISA detainees in the country.

Most of them, he said, were arrested for being involved in Jemaah Islamiah (JI) activities, international terrorist movements, the Al-Ma'unah movement, forgery of documents and making counterfeit coins.

ISA was enacted by the British to combat the communist insurgency. However, the act earned notoriety when it was latter used to crackdown on opposition leaders and social activists in the name of national security.

Among its bevy of luminary detainees, was ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim. He was arrested twice under the law - as a student leader in the 1970s and after he was sacked from his post in 1998.

He is currently serving a 15-year jail sentence on charges of sodomy and corruption, which he claims were trumped up.

Opposition leaders previously held under the ISA, include DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang, his deputy Karpal Singh and PRM president Dr Syed Husin Ali.

More recently in 2001, five Keadilan leaders and a malaysiakini columnist-cum-filmmaker were also detained under the law.

The six, who were released early this month, were accused of planing to topple the government through militant means. They have vehemently denied this charge.