PUTRAJAYA: Five former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees won damages totalling RM2.6 million when an appellate court found yesterday that their detention was unlawful as they had been detained for their political beliefs.

A three-man Court of Appeal bench chaired by Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail, who partially allowed the government’s appeal to reduce damages, said the grounds of detention were frivolous and devoid of merit.

“The five were not a threat to national security,” said Abdul Wahab.

The five are Batu MP Tian Chua, Hulu Kelang assemblyman Saari Sungib, PKR supreme council member Dr Badrul Amin Baharom, and activists Hishammudin Rais and Badaruddin Ismail.

They were held without trial for between 41 and 51 days in 2001.

Lawyer Razlan Hadri Zulkifli, who appeared for the five together with Ranjit Singh and Ho Kok Yew, told The Malaysian Insider that the quantum was reduced but still amounted to RM10,000 in damages for every day they were illegally held. They were also awarded RM30,000 in exemplary damages and another RM100,000 for defamation.

“But this is exclusive of the 8% interest awarded by the court to be paid from the day the suits were filed until the judgment sum is realised,” he said, adding that the final amount could be in the region of RM4 million.

In October 2001, then High Court judge Datuk Lau Bee Lan, who awarded the five RM4.06 million in damages, had also said their detention under the now-repealed ISA was unlawful. The award then was RM15,000 a day in relation to the total number of days that the five plaintiffs were detained.

Lau had also awarded Tian Chua, Hishammudin, Saari, Badrul Amin and Badaruddin RM60,000 in general damages and RM40,000 in aggravated damages on the grounds that words uttered by former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Norian Mai during a press conference in April 2001 in relation to their detention were defamatory.

The court also awarded RM200,000 as costs. Lau highlighted in her ruling that the detention was more likely due to political considerations than the fact that they were possible threats to national security. The five had sued Norian and two others for unlawful detention under the ISA and for defamation. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 12, 2014.