Extremely concerned with Malaysia’s possible role in a brutal Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) programme, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) today called on the government to disclose any “rendition process” that has taken place.

LFL executive director Eric Paulsen said it was a cause for great concern as the Malaysian authorities had arbitrarily and secretly detained foreign nationals who may have not committed any criminal offence in the country.

“ The arrest and detention seemed to have been done without any legal basis, due process and operated outside the realm of the Malaysian Constitution,” Paulsen said in a statement.

He was referring to the report by Open Society Justice Initiative on “Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition in 2012", which detailed the 2004 rendition of Libyan nationals Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq (Abdul Hakim Belhadj) and his wife, Fatima Bouchar, who was pregnant at the time.

'Disclose collaboration with CIA, others'

Paulsen pointed out that the government also needed to also disclose any collaboration with the CIA or other foreign authorities, where individuals may have been detained, interrogated, tortured and transferred around the world at the behest of the foreign government.

Putrajaya, he added, needed to stop participating in any other extraordinary renditions and to ensure that the rule of law is strictly observed.

Rendition in the US is the practice of sending a foreign criminal or terrorist suspect covertly to be interrogated in a country with less rigorous regulations for the humane treatment of prisoners.

The detainees are usually detained in “black sites” and are subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques”.

Meanwhile, PKR Youth leader Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad ( right ) pointed out that the report will have ramifications for the country as it highlighted the role Malaysia, as an ally in the “Global War on Terror” has played in the practices of extraordinary rendition.

“While stopping terror plots is paramount, Malaysia should not have compromised its moral integrity in this way.

“The war against terrorism and extremism is a war of values,” Nik Nazmi said in a statement today.

Paranoia, the suspension of civil liberties and the demonising of dissent in the name of distorted notions of “security”, he said, would simply play into the hands of those who would wish to hurt and ultimately destroy civilisation.

As such, apart from former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's “hysterical denunciation”, Malaysia seems to have little or no qualms about collaborating with the United States in such actions.

“Both the US and Malaysia owe the public, as well the world at large, an explanation on this sordid and sorry affair,” Nik Nazmi said.

A summary of a longer report detailing the use of torture by the agency after the 9/11 terrorist attacks was released by the Senate Intelligence Committee.