The government's decisions to release 11 Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees yesterday were welcomed by two groups today, while insisting that the draconian law should be repealed urgently.

Parti Rakyat Keadilan's information chief Tian Chua said that in spite of the new found freedom for the 11 detainees, the fact still remains that they had faced "punishment" that was carried out through the security act.

"(The detainees' fate) is as if depending on the goodwill of the government and the political leaders," said Chua in a press statement.

"ISA detainees are denied their rights to defend themselves in an open court," added Chua, himself a former ISA detainee.

Chua, together with five other reformasi leaders, had been held without trial for two years since April 2001 for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government through militant means - a charge they have denied.

He was freed in 2003 upon the expiry of his two-year detention.

Trampling on human rights

Amnesty International Malaysia meanwhile said it has long called for the repeal of the ISA for its abuses on the detainees.

"Although we welcome these releases, it must be emphasised that any detention under the ISA is illegitimate because it violates fundamental standards of human rights.

"These 11 men have spent years in detention and separated from their families without ever have been tried in a court of law," said its executive director Josef Roy Benedict in a statement.

He further added that the security act is an "unfortunate example" of what can happen when the state promotes security at the expense of human rights.

A total of 11 detainees - including son of Kelantan Menteri Besar and PAS spiritual adviser Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Nik Adli - were released from the ISA yesterday.

Nik Adli, 38, a religious teacher, was detained over his alleged connection to the so-called Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (KMM) in August 2001.

The 10 other men include five alleged KMM members and four with alleged links with the al-Qaeda linked-regional terror network, Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

Another six alleged JI-linked ISA detainees have been transferred from the Kamunting detention camp in Taiping and being held at the police remand centre in Kuala Lumpur.

They are expected to be released soon.

Release all

Rights groups and political parties have criticised the government's gesture in releasing the detainees ahead of the Hari Raya Aidil Fitri celebrations as a 'public relations' exercise.

They argued the 80-odd detainees still being held under the ISA should be released immediately or to be charged in an open court.

"For the government to consider the release of 11 detainees as a form of Hari Raya gift when there are 80 ISA detainees still detained is a mockery of justice," said DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng.

The former ISA detainees said that if at all the government wanted to exercise some festivity goodwill, it should then release all the other detainees currently being held at the Kamunting detention centre.