Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday announced that he will be getting married this Saturday.

To mark the happy occasion, Federal Territory (FT) PAS Youth wing has made a request to the prime minister.

As a wedding present, the opposition party has urged him to release all the detainees held under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

In a press statement today, FT PAS Youth Law and Human Rights Department director Ahmad Zamri Asa'ad Khuzaimi said Abdullah must share his joy with the rest of the nation by releasing the detainees.

"There are more than 100 (ISA) detainees held at the Kamunting Detention Centre (in Taiping, Perak). The authorities do not have enough evidence to convict them and many have been detained for years," he said

Cruel law

According to Ahmad Zamri, the detention is not only cruel to the detainees but also their family members who are separated from their loved ones.

"Wives and children are deprived of love from their husbands and fathers. Women who used to be housewives are now working, and at times they take the wrong paths to earn money," he said.

Abdullah, who is also the internal security minister, signs the detention orders for ISA detainees. He is also empowered to release them.

Rights groups have long called on the government to free those held under the security law, which provides for detention without trial, or to charge the detainees in an open court.

Those arrested under the ISA can be held up to 60 days without trial for an act which allegedly prejudices the security of the country.

After 60 days, the person may be further detained for a period of two years each without trial following approval from the minister.

The Act was originally enacted in 1960 to combat the communist insurgency. However, over the years it has been used to silence political dissent as well.

Scores of trade unionists, student leaders, labour activists, political activists, religious groups, academicians, NGO activists have been arrested under the ISA.

The biggest crackdown occurred in 1987 under former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad. More than 100 people were detained during the operation codenamed 'Ops Lalang'.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Zamri said Abdullah, as prime minister and chair of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), must not allow a draconian act that contradicts Islamic principles and international human rights standards.

In view of this, he said it is only right for the detainees to be given fair trials and be released if the authorities fail to produce any evidence to convict them.