The Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) today rapped the police for their heavy-handed action in using the Internal Security Act (ISA) to detain a student leader in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

"The police should not abuse the ISA. If he has truly committed an offence, he should be charged or dealt with accordingly," Suhakam commissioner Prof Hamdan Adnan told malaysiakini .

Student activist Khairul Anuar Ahmad Zainuddin was today arrested under the ISA - which allows for detention without trial - for posing a "threat to national security", according to police.

He was detained at the Dang Wangi police station while accompanying six student activists who were told to present themselves there in connection with an anti-ISA demonstration in front of the National Mosque on June 8.

"The police should not use such statements such as a 'threat to national security'. It is such a general term. Everybody could be a threat to national security," Hamdan said.

Hamdan added that with the "threat to national security" justification, the public would be hard pressed to believe the police.

"When you make statements like that, it is also hard for the public to swallow them," he said.

When asked what course of action the commission would be taking, he said he "would be calling on fellow commissioners to discuss the issue as soon as possible".

Another commissioner Anuar Zainal Abidin added that it is the stand of the Commission that detention without trial was against human rights.

"Detention without a proper trial or due process of law is against the very tenets of human rights. If the student has committed any offence, charge him in court," Anuar said.

"Our laws provide for such detentions. Just because there has been a violation of human rights, it doesn't mean there has been a violation of our laws, too. That's why we are seriously studying the provisions of the ISA to come up with recommendations for the government," Anuar added.

Disciplinary action

However, Anuar said the nature of the student's offence must also be taken into consideration.

"The real question is, what was the nature of the offence? He might be a student but in terms of age, he might be mature and therefore conscious of what he was doing," he said

Khairul's arrest is the latest in a series of ISA arrests beginning April 10.

Last week, the National Malaysian Youth Association (PPNM) lodged a police report against the Peninsular Islamic Students Coalition (Gamis), an unregistered group, for carrying out illegal activities in various public varsities.

Yesterday, three students of the International Islamic University (IIU) were questioned by campus authorities for their involvement in the Abolish ISA Student Movement (GMMI) while a Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) student is awaiting a disciplinary action for selling anti-ISA badges.