The Kota Bahru High Court today dismissed a habeas corpus application by PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat's son against his detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for his alleged involvement in militant activities.

Justice Suriyadi Halim Omar said that Nik Adli's arrest under the ISA on Aug 4 was valid and legal.

"It is my factual finding that the authorities did inform the detainee of the grounds of his arrest," said Suriyadi in a 20-page judgment.

Nik Adli had sought a habeas corpus application on the grounds that his arrest was illegal because he was not informed of the reasons of his arrest.

Habeas corpus is a writ ordering prisoners to be brought before a court or a judge to ascertain whether their detention is lawful.

The 34-year-old religious school teacher also claimed that the ISA was legislated to stamp out communism and should not have been used against him.

Nik Adli and nine others were detained for allegedly being members of the Malaysian Mujahideen Group (KMM), which the police blamed for a spate of crimes including the assassination of a politician, the bombing of a church and temple as well as several bank robberies.

Police also claimed that Nik Adli was the leader of KMM and had undergone militant training in Afghanistan during his students days and had intended to wage a holy war to topple the government here.

His habeas corpus application was filed on his behalf by his wife Sles Monira Sles Math and brother Nik Abduh.

Two-year detention

On Sept 24, a day before his application was to be heard, Nik Adli and eight others were ordered to be detained for two years at the Kamunting detention centre in Perak.

Justice Suriyadi said this development came as a "bombshell" when the matter came before him the next day.

Nevertheless, the hearing continued despite an application by the prosecution that the "drastic change in the status of the matter had resulted in no living issue to be argued".

"I dismissed the application by the prosecution as the end product could not be disassociated with those earlier acts," said the judge.

Suriyadi also explained in his judgment that at times a complete detention order could not be given to a detainee as "facts and other conclusions are yet to be documented".

"It is based on this reasoning that the grounds of his arrest may not be readily available exactly at the time of the arrest, but only at some point of time."

However, he said that his perusal of affidavits filed in this matter "revealed nothing that the detainee had not been informed of the grounds of his arrest".

Appeal filed

On the question of whether the ISA was legislated to counter threats of communism only, Suriyadi said there were sufficient authorities in law books to reject this argument.

He also said that the authorities decision to arrest Nik Adli under the ISA and not to charge him in the court of law did not mean they (the authorities) had acted in bad faith.

Meanwhile AFP reported that Nik Adli's lawyers had already filed an appeal against the judgment.

His brother, Nik Abduh, was also quoted by the news agency as saying that he had expected the application to be rejected today.

"Looking at past cases, we had already expected that the judge would reject the application. It is not surprising," he said.