The Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) can be challenged to secure the release of 45 Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees being held at the Kamunting detention camp, says human rights lawyer Edmund Bon.

He said a team from Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA and Lawyers for Liberty would visit the detainees on Thursday for details to prepare for the action.

NONE Bon told a forum in Kuala Lumpur last night that the detainees were being held under a provision in Sosma that allows continuation of detention orders made under ISA, which he said is unfair and can be challenged.

"ISA gives the home minister the power to order the detention of people for two years. Under Sosma, the minister has no such power.

"Yet, the orders made against them for two years under ISA are continued under an Act where the minister has no such power. It does not jell. It does not make sense," Bon said.

In addition, he said, Sosma was enacted under Article 149 of the federal constitution, an emergency power that strips some fundamental rights to combat threats to national security from a "substantial body of persons".

Perpetuates notion Malaysia is still under emergency

This not only perpetuates the notion that Malaysia is still under a state of emergency, he said, but the government has failed to state who is threatening Malaysia.

"That is a special preamble to Article 149. The government can only use Article 149 if it can show who are these ‘substantial body of persons' who are at our borders, within or outside Malaysia, who are threatening Malaysian security," he added.

Bon, a former Bar Council Constitutional Law Committee chairperson, suggested that Sosma could be legally challenged on "whether Parliament, when passing the law, had sufficient material before it to decide there is a real threat to national security".

Another possibility is to investigate allegations that the police had abused the ISA detainees and to examine whether that could serve as legal grounds to secure their release, he said.

"There are a few legal challenges that we can think about, but we will have to wait until Thursday to speak to them (the detainees) and confirm certain facts."

Nine of the ISA detainees are now on a hunger strike to press for their early release while the others have reportedly pledged to join the strike after the June 30 deadline they gave Suhakam to persuade the Home Ministry to either release, deport, or charge them in court.

Allegations of torture have also emerged from notes passed to Malaysiakini , purportedly smuggled out of Kamunting by camp staff. The police have categorically denied torturing the detainees.

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