The hearing of the suit brought against the government in 2004 by eight former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees has been postponed to January next year as documents classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) pertaining to the detainees' interrogation had yet to be fully disclosed.

In view of the circumstances, Justice Kang Hwee Gee made the decision in his chambers at Wisma Denmark, Kuala Lumpur, this morning.

This followed yesterday's hearing where senior federal counsel Kamaludin Mohd Said cross-examined Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor on events that took place during his 60-day detention based on a document that was handed to him by the police.

However, the papers were not made available to the plaintiff's counsel and it also contained portions which are 'censored' (parts black-out).

Justice Kang warned that if the documents are not fully disclosed, the DPP would not be allowed to ask questions based on it. The document could also be rendered inadmissable because of the 'censored' parts.

It was then made known that the papers are minutes of the interrogation conducted by Special Branch officers on Ezam during his detention - clearly an OSA-classified document.

Counsel for the plaintiffs Razlan Hadri told the press that they would also need to verify the documents handed over by the Attorney-General's chambers.

"The document is typewritten and we have instructions that the interrogation minutes are in fact handwritten. So we are getting them verified as to its authenticity," he said.

The ISA 8 - Ezam, Tian Chua, Hishamuddin Rais, Saari Sungib, Badaruddin Ismail, Badrulamin Bahron, Abdul Ghani Haroon and N Gobalakrishnan - are suing the government for damages for unlawful arrest, detention for breach of constitutional rights and defamation.

Excited about development

In April 2001, the plaintiffs were detained for up to two years by then IGP Norian Mai under Section 73(1) ISA 1967 for allegedly acting in a manner prejudicial to the security of the country.

They were detained on the grounds that they were militants and reformasi activists who intended to use violent means vis a vis molotov cocktails, bombs and grenade launcher to overthrow the government of Malaysia.

The suit has named the IGP, minister of home affairs and the government as defendants.

Chua who was present in court today expressed his excitement on what is to come should the OSA documents be revealed and scrutinised in court.

"I think the interesting part is still the document if that is released to us. It will be the complete account of the interrogation process which we can get the objective view of what went on (during detention)," he told malaysiakini.

"This is for the sake of transparency, the police must release it to us to see if the prime concern of the police then was national security or political. This is something I am excited about," Chua added with a smile.