FAC News - Friday, February 15, 2002 9:28 PM

Joint Press Release

Kamunting Political Detainees

We, the Kamunting Political Detainees, profusely protest the recent re-arrest of Dr Badrulamin Bahron under the Internal Security Act (ISA), with no valid reason given, and his continued detention in the Kamunting Detention Centre.

The original justification offered for the initial arrest of Dr Badrulamin in April 2001 was that he was allegedly part of a conspiracy to bring in guns, bombs, rocket launchers and Molotov Cocktails and was therefore, according to the police, a threat to national security. Dr Badrulamin’s re-arrest, however, had nothing to do with him being a threat to national security, either directly or indirectly. Yet the ISA was used to re-arrest and detain him.

We demand that the Minister of Home Affairs justify his re-arrest and detention with a valid and credible explanation. Dr Badrulamin’s re-arrest affirms our belief that our arrests and detention since April 2001 were politically motivated and had nothing to do whatsoever with the allegation that we are a threat to national security.

We further demand that we be formally charged for whatever crime we are alleged to have committed and be given the benefit of a proper and fair trial in a court of law. The government’s failure to bring us to trial would prove that the allegations against us are unfounded and a figment of its imagination. This would render the government no other alternative than to free us without further delay.

In anticipation of the government’s failure to respond to our demands and to protest our continued detention, we, the Kamunting Political Detainees, have rejected all prison food since Monday, 4 February 2002, and this will continue until such time that the government responds to our demands. This prison food boycott will be escalated should there be no response from the authorities.

Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor

Saari Sungib

Dr Badrulamin Bahron

Chua Tian Cheng

Lokman Noor Adam

Hishamuddin Rais

KAMUNTING POLITICAL DETAINEES

15 February 2002