exclusive

ISA detainee Tian Chua told a panel reviewing his ISA detention yesterday that he will not apologise for his participation in mass anti-government campaigns because he has the "sacred duty to defend the constitutional liberty against totalitarian tendencies".

Chua, who is Keadilan vice-president, said in a 10-page statement that he does not wish to deny his active participation in various assemblies, demonstrations and ceramahs (talks).

He also said that he did wish to explain or justify his attendance in any meeting or public gathering.

"To me, they are rights enshrined in the Federal Constitution. I need not justify to anyone nor seek permission from anyone when I exercise them," he said in his statement released today by his lawyers.

Chua subsequently withdrew from making any more appeals to the advisory board after lodging a police report against special branch officers for failing to produce documents asked by board chairperson Ahmad Zaki Husin pertaining to his detention.

'Oppressive machinery'

The three-member board first met with Chua and his lawyers for three hours on Aug 22, but the Keadilan leader was not asked to present his views to the board then.

The board met again last Friday and Saturday and met for the final time at 2.30pm yesterday. The review board is provided for under the controversial security law for detainees to appeal for early release.

The findings of the board will be submitted to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for the final decision.

The 39-year-old opposition leader, who is currently undergoing a two-year ISA detention at the Kamunting detention centre in Perak, was among 10 Keadilan leaders and reformasi activists held under the ISA - which allows detention without trial - in April.

In the scathing statement, the opposition leader also criticised the board for being part of an "oppressive machinery against the people" and added that he does not expect to be pardoned by the board.

"This process was merely a "deceptive procedure to cover up a barbaric law. I cannot be absolved by this board as the innocent cannot be absolved by the guilty," he said.

Chua also told the board that he will not apologise for appealing to the international community as human rights abuses and anti-democratic practises should be condemned by the world.

Forcefully abducted

Despite the provisions for freedom of assembly in the Constitution, the police repeatedly used violent force to clamp down on peaceful demonstrations, he said, adding that he had been assaulted by the police on a number of occasions.

Chua said when he was arrested on Aug 8 last year, he was taken to the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters, where he was "severely beaten by a masked policeman" in the lock-up.

"The assault caused a fracture on my backbone which has not fully recovered and until today, the police have not provided any answer to this hideous act of cruelty," he said.

Meanwhile, Chua also told the board that on April 10 he was "forcefully abducted" from his office in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, by a "van-load of uniformed thugs".

Following this, Chua claimed he was denied any possibility of contacting his family members or friends and felt no different from a hostage.

"Such a way of arresting a citizen is no different from the act of criminal kidnaping," he said, adding that he was blindfolded and taken to an unknown destination, where he was confined in solitude for 52 days and subjected to intense interrogation by unidentified men.

"We (ISA detainees) were deliberately separated, kept isolated and deprived of news from the outside. We had no access to legal counsel and this gave interrogators a free hand to intimidate, harass and abuse us physically and mentally," he added.

Chua also told the board that he and the other detainees were "forced to confess to non-existent crimes and provide incriminating information about others."

'Trial via media'

He lamented that he was pronounced guilty at the instance of his arrest and that neither investigation or judicial process were needed to deliver his sentence.

Tian claimed that throughout the investigation he was never told of the charges against him.

"Only at the end of the interrogation period I learned that the Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai had accused us of preparing an armed insurrection to overthrow the government," he told the board.

"My interrogators never conveyed this charge to me. I also learned that during that period the police and ruling politicians delivered many baseless accusations against me and the other detainees," he added.

Tian said this "trial via media" without the detainees knowledge was "utterly unfair" as the accused had no opportunity of defending themselves.

He claimed that his experience was not an isolated case as "thousands of people had been arrested and detained for their activism in defending fundamental human rights".

Other than Chua, Keadilan youth leaders Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor, Saari Sungib, Lokman Nor Adam, Dr Badrul Amin Bahron and malaysiakini columnist-cum-filmmaker Hishamudin Rais are also serving a two-year detention at Kamunting.

The other five have made their appeals to the board last month.