‘Beaten every day for 60 days’
(Free Malaysia Today) – When you are beaten for 60 days straight, your innocence no longer matters to you, says an ex-ISA detainee.
A former detainee under the Internal Security Act (ISA), Fadzullah Razak, recalls with bitterness the day the prime minister announced the repeal of the act exactly one year ago.
“When we found out the ‘amazing’ news through NST and Utusan – the only newspapers detainees are provided with – everyone was shocked and in disbelief, even the detention staff,” Fadzullah told a press conference here today.
“My fellow detainees were so happy; some were jumping with joy, others rolled around on the floor. You’d find people celebrating in all sorts of manner.
“But I told them: ‘Don’t believe it, as the government has never been sincere about it’,” said Fadzullah.
His scepticism on that day is apparently not unfounded – although exactly one year has passed since Najib Tun Razak’s much-anticipated announcement, 30 detainees remain in the Kamunting detention centre under a now-defunct act that allows for detention without trial.
After a new bill was tabled to replace the ISA this year, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein had ignored calls for the detainees’ immediate release and instead said he would personally look through each case to determine their fate.
Fadzullah himself was only released last month, along with 11 other detainees, after spending two years there for allegedly having links with terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah – links that had never been proven in court.
“The situation in the centre was extremely stressful – imagine knowing the ISA had been abolished, but you’re still stuck there as political hostages,” said Fadzullah.
Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/09/13/beaten-every-day-for-60-days/
