A Bangladeshi defence witness in the "false news" trial of Irene Fernandez told the court this morning that he saw an inmate from India beaten for an hour by three police guards at a detention camp five years ago.

Zakir Hossain, 37, a former detainee at the Semenyih illegal immigrants camp near Kajang, said that the policemen beat the inmate at the same time using a thick plastic hose and a stick.

He added that the police told him that the beating was a punishment related to an attempt by a few detainees to escape from the camp.

"One policeman came to know from a detainee that a few people were trying to escape," he told magistrate Juliana Mohamed.

According to Zakir, the police used a green plastic hose measuring about three feet in length to beat the Indian inmate.

"You said that the detainee was beaten by this policeman with a hose. Besides the hose, was there anything used?" defence counsel Puravalen asked.

"There were two other policemen who used sticks to beat him up," Zakir told the court.

Earlier, Zakir told the court that he also knew of another inmate from his detention block who died. However, he said the inmate did not die in the camp but in the hospital.

Yesterday, Zakir testified that one of his Bangladeshi inmates in the detention camp died after suffering in pain for more than two weeks. According to him, the victim's arms, legs, knees, face and stomach were swollen.

When the court began hearing this morning, deputy public prosecutor Ganeson Somasundram objected to yesterday's application by the defence to the magistrate for a list of all police personnel on duty in the Semenyih camp between February and April of 1995.

According to Ganeson, the application under Section 51 of the Criminal Procedure Code should be rejected on several grounds, including that the defence's notice of motion was not supported by an affidavit, was not done in a formal manner and did not name a respondent.

Puravalen responded by arguing that Section 51 does not stipulate that the application must be formal.

According to him, the prosecution had alleged that the defence witness could not identify the (police) officer, but when the defence said "yes", the prosecution refused to give them the list.

Yesterday, Zakir told the court that he was forced to masturbate in front of two police guards, one of whom was Mohamad Ali.

When asked by Puravalen whether he could identify Mohamed Ali if he was produced in court, Zakir said "yes".

Puravalen argued that the objection from the prosecution was a further attempt to preclude evidence from the court.

"Now they have a list of names, they refuse to give us, I have no choice but to use the word disgraceful," he said.

Nonetheless, he said the defence will file a formal application.

The trial will resume tomorrow.

Fernandez is being charged with "maliciously publishing false news" after she released a memorandum about tortures and deaths in the illegal immigrants detention camps at a press conference in August, 1995.

The women rights activist and KeADILan supreme council member faces three years in prison if convicted. She is currently out on bail.

The trial, which began in June, 1996, is the longest ongoing trial in the country's legal history. It entered its 242nd day today.

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