The 15 Internal Security Act detainees who recently ended their hunger strike following negotiations with the Home Ministry have now called upon the ministry to deliver on its promise to review their cases individually.

In a memo presented to Suhakam today, delivered via rights advocates Abolish ISA Movement (AIM), the detainees said they were promised by the four ministry officials who met them on March 11 that new recommendations would be put forward to Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (now Internal Security Minister).

AIM working committee chairperson Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh said Suhakam should look into the ministry's promises, and pressure for a quick decision to either charge the 15 - accused of links to Jemaah Islamiah (JI) as alleged members of local terror cell Kumpulan Militan Malaysia - or release them.

"The decision should be communicated to the detainees as soon as possible...to ensure that the detainees would not launch another protest action," Syed Ibrahim told Suhakam complaints committee chairperson Prof Hamdan Adnan.

"The detention without trial for more than two years simply cannot be continued anymore," he said.

The group launched a hunger strike on March 1 to protest the decision to extend their detention when their initial two-year ISA term expired on Feb 24 this year.

In their notes written during the March 11 meeting with the ministry - made available in today's memorandum to Suhakam - the group questioned how the minister could arrive at the decision to extend their order.

The extension, the detainees claim, was made despite their good behaviour and the recommendation for release by the ministry's appeals board.

JI confessions

On a separate matter, AIM also protested to Suhakam today over the recent on-camera confessions of four Malaysians currently held under Indonesian security law for alleged links with JI.

According to AIM, the programme which was aired by TV3 on Friday, has breached minimum international standards in the treatment of prisoners, subverted due process of the law, and brought into question the ethics of the television station.

It called on the human rights commission to pressure the government to extradite the four men and charge them in Malaysian courts; as well as advise TV3 that such "trial-by-media" programmes are in breach of fundamental human rights.

"The media and the government should not subvert due process and subvert the role of the justice system...even before they have been charged in court," Syed Ibrahim said.

However, the Malaysian police have no plans to extradite the four from Indonesia.