The government will not apologise to or compensate those detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA), the de facto law minister has reiterated in spite of his admission that the law was misused in 1987.

NONE Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, has insisted that the detention was imposed lawfully.

"A person is innocent before he is convicted by a court. If an accused person, who is charged legally, is released by the court and if the government has to compensate or apologise to (the individual), then the country does not need laws any more, and there is no need for the court to exist," he reportedly said.

Sin Chew Daily today quoted him as saying that the ISA was enacted by Parliament. As such, any action enforced under this law has legitimacy.

Nazri had made similar comments last year soon after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announced that the government would abolish the ISA.

Last week, Nazri had conceded in the Dewan Rakyat that the ISA had been misused to detain persons for political reasons during Operasi Lalang in October 1987.

Former MCA Youth deputy chief Chan Tse Yuen, one of the 106 detainees in that police crackdown, then revived demands for a public apology and compensation from the government.