PUBLICAI Index: ASA 28/035/2001

17 December 2001

Further information on UA 256/01 (ASA 28/025/2001, 11 October 2001) - Fear of torture or ill-treatment / incommunicado detention

MALAYSIAKhairuddin Saad, aged 30, religious teacher

Mohamad Zulkifli, aged 35, religious teacher

Mohd Zulkifli Mohd Zakaria, aged 32, religious teacher

Mohd Salleh Said, religious teacher, aged 30

Hazami Ishak, aged 33, businessman and executive secretary of Kelantan Religious Teachers’ Cooperative

Released:Zulkifli, aged 30, religious teacher

Zulfiki, a religious teacher from the state of Kedah, is reported to have been released unconditionally after being held for 55 days in incommunicado detention.

On 7 December 2001 the Minister of Home Affairs ordered the five other men named above to be detained for two years without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA). They have been transferred to Kamunting detention camp. Amnesty International fears that the police may have subjected them to intense psychological pressure amounting to torture, or to physical abuse, during interrogation. However, no information is available about their state of health.

The five men, whom the authorities accused of threatening national security, have been linked to a local militant Islamic group, allegedly called Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), the “Malaysian Mujahedin Group”, but no evidence against them has been made public. Under the ISA they have no opportunity to defend themselves before a court of law and are denied all access to lawyers during the initial 60-day interrogation period.

Thank you to all who sent appeals. Amnesty International will continue to campaign against the use of the ISA through other forms of action.