The Home Ministry should study the Federal Court's landmark ruling on the Internal Security Act (ISA) last year before claiming the law was not cruel, said ex-detainee Saari Sungib.

The Keadilan leader said the four-member Federal Court panel ruled, among other things, that the denial of counsel by the police violated the detainees' constitutional rights.

"How can the deputy home minister not be aware of the implications of such a landmark decision? The ministry must be aware of the landmark case, as the right to counsel have been deprived for all previous detainees," he added when contacted yesterday.

He was reacting to Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung's statement earlier that detainees were not mistreated under the law and held incommunicado for the first 60 days only.

Fundamental right

"This fundamental constitutional right (to counsel) cannot only be given once you are inside Kamunting (detention camp), the right to lawyers must be provided for within the 60 days itself," said Saari, who was released from detention early last month.

He was arrested with four other Keadilan leaders - vice-president Tian Chua, Youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor and supreme council members Lokman Adam and Badrulamin Bahron - and malaysiakini columnist-cum-filmmaker Hishamuddin Rais.

The six, all of whom have been released, were detained in 2001 for planing to topple the government through militant means, a charge which they have vehemently denied.

Meanwhile, Tian Chua said it is "precisely the denial of a person's fundamental right to lawyers during the initial 60-day ISA detention" a mistreatment and gross violation of constitutional rights.

He added that during this crucial period, the denial of access to the outside world, including lawyers, provided ample opportunity for mental and physical torture.

"Once the detainee has been sent to Kamunting, what is the point of the lawyers, since you are already considered 'convicted'," he said when contacted.

Difficult period

The Keadilan leader claimed the initial remand was the most difficult period as the detainee can be subjected to gross violations of constitutional rights and denied many fundamental needs provided under the constitution.

"Things would improve later once the detainees begin to talk, but that is not good enough. How can you deny people of their basic rights?" he asked.

Saari and Mohd Ezam were said to have been denied sleep during the initial detention period while Tian Chua claimed he was denied, among others, the right to inform his family of his arrest.

Tian Chua also criticised the deputy home minister's comparison of the ISA with the post-Sept 11 anti-terror laws in the West.

He said this was like "comparing a chicken to a duck" and added that "their laws are nothing compared to the ISA."

Under the ISA, the police can detain any individual up to a period of 60-days without judicial order. At the end of this period, it will be up to the Home Minister to determine if the detainee should be held for an indefinite period, without trial. Orders are signed every two years.