The Bar Council today urged the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) to conduct an open inquiry into alleged assault of two recently released Internal Security Act detainees.

Council chairperson Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari said that the commission must also make its findings public after investigating the complaints by reformasi leaders Tian Chua and Hishamuddin Rais.

"Acts which are done inside places of detention and which are therefore usually shielded from public gaze must not be allowed to escape public scrutiny," said the head of 10,000-strong lawyers.

"There can be no imaginable justification for cowardly acts of custodial violence. Complaints of this nature must be thoroughly investigated," added Kuthubul.

Solitary confinement

Yesterday, Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua and malaysiakini columnist-cum-film maker Hishamuddin lodged a complaint to Suhakam that they assaulted by 30 plainclothes and uniformed security personnel in full riot gear while they were being held in the Kamunting Detention Centre near Taiping.

They claimed that the May 9 incident came in the wake of several provocations and the ex-detainees questioned the reasons behind the incident.

The assault had left bruise marks on Tian, while Hishamuddin was handcuffed and made to endure solitary confinement for one night.

The duo told Suhakam that the assault was witnessed by three other ex-detainees - Lokman Adam, Dr Badrulamin Bahron and Saari Sungib.

The assault came one month before the release of all the six reformasi activists from their two-year ISA detention.

For its part, Suhakam has said that it will hold an inquiry into the alleged assault and that it would contact several camp officials named in the complaints submitted by Tian Chua and Hishamuddin.

Total disregard

Many other organisations have also called for Suhakam to take action over the alleged assault .

The Bar, while reiterating its stand against the controversial law - which allows detention without trial - said that such ill-treatment revealed the alarming lack of respect on the part of the jailers for the detainees.

It also lambasted the guards for their actions in confronting detainees who are already "entirely in their custody and control."

'It will further confirm the dangerous disregard of human rights that an unjust system of detention has helped to nurture," lamented Kuthubul.