Scores of rights activists plan to gather outside a detention centre in Malaysia's northern Perak state tmorrow to demand the release of six supporters of jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

"We plan a car convey from the capital Kuala Lumpur to Kemunting o­n Sunday to press for their release," Yap Swee Seng, coordinator with rights group Voice of the Malaysian People (Suaram) told AFP today.

"They should be released. We pray the home minister does not extend their detention," he added.

Yap said family members of the detainees and critics of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad would also participate in the gathering.

The Internal Security Act (ISA), under which they are being held, allows detention without trial and the standard two-year detention orders can be renewed indefinitely.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, picked to replace Mahathir when the 77-year-old veteran leader steps down in October, is also the home minister.

Listen to outcry

Yap said he hoped Abdullah would listen to the domestic and international outcry opposing the detention of the six people.

Malaysia has come under mounting international pressure to charge or release the opposition detainees, with 46 members of Denmark's parliament issuing the latest in a series of petitions to the government.

They joined parliamentarians from Britain, Japan and the Netherlands and a group of 40 Islamic scholars who have already pressed Mahathir over the six men, whose initial two-year detention orders expire in June.

Yap said the detention order for Tian Chua, vice-president of the opposition National Justice Party (Keadilan); Mohammad Ezam Mohamad Noor, Keadilan's youth leader; Hishamudin Rais and Saari Sungib ends o­n Sunday while the order for Lokman Adam and Badrulamin Bahrom expires o­n June 12.

Keadilan is led by Anwar's wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

P Ramakrishnan, president of rights group Aliran urged the government to free the six and redeem itself.

"Tomorrow is D-Day not o­nly for the six detainees held under the ISA but also for Malaysia," he said.

Anwar, Mahathir's former protege, was sacked in 1998 and is serving 15 years in jail o­n corruption and sodomy charges.

Government critics allege Anwar was framed to remove a political threat to Mahathir and that the ISA has been used to stifle protest. - AFP