Two alleged Jemaah Islamiah members, who have served six years of detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA), are set to stay in their cells for another two years.

Their detention has been extended for another two years effective June 11, 2008.

Mat Sah Mohd Satray and Shamsuddin Sulaiman were first arrested under the draconian law on June 11, 2002 and received two-year extensions twice without seeing the inside of a courtroom. They received their new extension on their 6th anniversary two weeks ago.

syed ibrahim syed nor Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) chairperson Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh told Malaysiakini today that the eight-year detention was a “gross injustice incompatible with the human rights law.”

“There is no proof of any criminal activity but they have been punished severely.

“It’s a double whammy on the person and this goes to show that the law is abusively wrong,” he said.

"Not only is it affecting their families but the effect will stay with them for a very long time.”

The Al-Qaeda-linked JI network is blamed for a series of attacks in the region including the Bali bombings in October 2002 which killed 202 people.

No clear reason

Contacted today, Mat Sah’s wife Norlaila Othman said the government did not give any clear reasons for the latest extension.

“The government should have clarified his extension but they did not say anything apart from that they were still not satisfied and my husband is still a threat to national security,” she said.

Having fought for her husband and other detainees’ freedom for many years, Norlaila said she had never set a high hope on his release.

“The future has always been uncertain for me and I just wouldn’t want to be disappointed later,” she explained.

AIM will organise a ‘Anti-ISA gathering’ on June 28 at 8.30pm in Stadium Malawati, Shah Alam to mark yesterday’s International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

Government defends extension

wan farid wan salleh However, Deputy Home Minister Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh defended the decision to extend the detention.

“The extension is just a ISA procedure and it does not involve any time frame. If he is no longer a threat to national security, then he would be freed,” he told Malaysiakini in a telephone interview.

Explaining the alleged torture of another ISA detainee, Sanjeev Kumar Krishnan during his detention at the Kamunting camp in Sept 2007, the minister stressed that the law ‘never prevents anybody from practicing their rights.’

“If the detainees are not happy with the extension, they can always go for harbeas corpus ,” he said.

On the alleged torture, Wan Farid said he would be the first to object if such an act had actually occurred.