Arqam man assails KL's detentions

Arqam man assails KL's detentions

BANGKOK (AFP): A senior Al Arqam official based in Thailand
has assailed Malaysia's detention without trial of sect members
and disputed the purported confession of sect leader Ashaari
Muhamad.

Al Arqam Supreme Council member Ustaz Abu Daulah said in a
letter published in The Nation daily yesterday that Ashaari's
reported confession was "another (Malaysian) government
propaganda ploy to deceive the public."

Ashaari and other sect members, held under Malaysia's tough
Internal Security Act (ISA), "were denied fundamental rights and
treated worse than criminals by the Malaysian police," the writer
said.

Responding to a speech and news conference in Bangkok last
week by Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, he
recalled that Anwar had vowed to fight against the ISA after he
was detained under the law for nearly two years as a social
activist in the 1970s.

"Now he is in the government and all has been forgotten. Worse
still, from a fervent Islamic intellectual fighting against
social injustice he has now turned to inventing lies and half-
truths to shut others up, by using the most dreadful ISA," the
writer held.