The Kuala Lumpur High Court today heard that the detention order signed by Internal Security Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was made in bad faith and had abused the law.

Gobind Singh Deo - representing the five Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders currently detained in Kamunting, Perak under the Internal Security Act - had raised this point in the first day of the habeas corpus application.

According to him, the detention orders were made in bad faith because it stated that the Hindraf leaders posed a security threat against the government and Umno.

“This is contrary to Section 8 of the ISA that says the threat must be against the security of the country, not a political party government.

“The courts cannot allow this to carry on. Otherwise, whoever campaigns against the government can be unjustly arrested under the ISA,” he argued.

Deprived of enquiry

Meanwhile, leading counsel Karpal Singh raised that there has been a procedural non-compliance with the provision of Section 8 and 73 of the said Act because Abdullah had invoked the wrong section first.

According to him, the detainees have been deprived of an enquiry under Section 73 which provides for a period not exceeding 60 days for investigations including the right of the applicant to put up his defence.

However, the five - P Uthayakumar, M Manoharan, R Kenghadharan, V Ganabatirau and T Vasanthakumar were detained under Section 8(1) ISA directly on Dec 13 last year under Abdullah’s orders.

“Section 8(1) does not provide for arrest. It only confers powers on the minister to make an order of detention. This is a fatal flaw which nullifies the initial arrests and continued detention at (Kamunting), he said.

However, Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail rebutted Karpal and said Abdullah’s affidavit states that the detention orders were signed after reading the report submitted by his officials.

“The minister said he has taken into consideration of the report and was fully satisfied with it. He had made the decision based on his personal knowledge.

“This cannot be equated as bad faith. The minister’s subjective satisfaction that the detainees posed a national threat to security is not questionable,” he said.

Detainee's kids present

The senior lawyer also argued that all procedural prerequisites have been complied with before requesting to stand down for lunch.

Judicial commissioner Zainal Azman Abdul Aziz initially set the hearing to continue in the afternoon but changed it to tomorrow morning.

The familiar sight of a crowd of more than 70 supporters packed the fourth floor courtroom.

Court police were seen assisting family members and supporters of the Hindraf leaders to fill up the seats in court before the session started

Also making an appearance in court today were detainee Manoharan’s three children - twins Hariharan and Shivaranjini, both 11 years old and Ganendra, nine.

There were seen holding up placards saying, “I miss my father”, “Please release my father” and My father is innocent”.

Watch 3-min video of demo outside the courtroom