The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) will investigate if the Internal Security Act (ISA) detention of some of the 'Karachi 13' for alleged terror links after being deported from Pakistan is in violation of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Commissioner Prof Hamdan Adnan (second from right) said Malaysia is bound to observe a minimum acceptable standard of treatment for young detainees, since it has ratified the Convention.

"There are certain conditions applicable to detainees under the age of 20. For instance, they cannot be kept in solitary confinement, cannot be made to sleep on cement blocks and cannot be mixed with adult offenders," he said after a two-hour dialogue session with family members of ISA detainees at the Suhakam headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

The dialogue session was attended by some 70 family members and supporters of the ISA detainees.

Hamdan was commenting on the controversial detention of 13 students, aged between 16 and 25, upon their return from Pakistan last Monday after spending more than a month in the custody of authorities there.

The students had been arrested in Karachi in late September on suspicion of being involved in militant activities, but were later released.

However, Malaysian police arrested the group upon their arrival in Kuala Lumpur, claiming that the youths could have undergone militant training while in Pakistan.

Mother's appeal

According to Hamdan, the authorities here should have considered other options of obtaining information from the students without resorting to use of the ISA.

"The police could have asked them to go to the police station daily for their statements to be recorded. It is also very unbecoming of the police to link the students to militant groups since the youths could be afraid (and admit to any accusations made)," he said.

Hamdan and three other commissioners - Asiah Abu Samah, Zainah Anwar and KC Vohrah - had earlier heard a tearful appeal from the mother of 19-year-old Mohd Radzi Abdul Razak.

Rohaimah Salleh (left), 42, had related details of her hour-long visit to her son this morning at the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters.

"He told me that he was treated well but when I held his hand, I knew immediately that he was in fear. His hand was shaking the whole time. I didn't believe that he was well at all," she said, holding back tears.

"My husband said the same things when he was first detained and I could tell also then that he was not acting normally."

Rohaimah's husband, Abdul Razak Baharudin has been detained under the ISA since December 2001 over alleged links with the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

The distraught mother also denied allegations that her son could be among youths trained to be the next generation of JI leaders.

"I cannot accept these allegations. I sent him to study and there is no reason for my son to get involved in such activities. There are no basis to these claims," she said.

In a report today, The Star quoted police sources as saying that two of the detained students had attended training sessions and sermons by fugitive al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden just months before the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Responding to reporters' questions if her son could have been one of two students, Rohaimah said that, to the best of her knowledge, her son had never visited Afghanistan.

Aside from Rohaimah, the families of eight other students have also been given permission by the police to visit the detained youths in stages.

Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) campaigner Badaruddin Ismail said the first visit by the family of 18-year-old Ahmad Firdaus Kamarudin took place last Friday, while two other families had been scheduled for visits this afternoon and four more over the next two days.

AIM, however, voiced concern that the conditions under which the visits were being conducted are far from ideal. Based on feedback from Ahmad Firdaus' parents, the student was accompanied by some seven police officers, one of whom took notes of the conversation.

Tightened rules

Earlier, the wives of two current ISA detainees spoke at length about the problems that family members have faced during visits to the Kamunting detention camp in Perak.

Norlaila Othman, whose husband, Mat Sah Mohd Satray is among those accused of being a JI member, said she had been made to wait for hours before being allowed to see her husband.

She said visitation rules have also been tightened following the release of six reformasi activists in June.

"When the reformasi detainees were there, we were allowed to bring food for our husbands but now, the authorities have reverted back to the old system. We are made to buy food from the camp canteen," she said.

Another wife, Suri Hanim Mohamad, told the Suhakam commissioners that camp authorities have also revoked permission for them to see their husbands without being separated by a barrier, as recommended by Suhakam in the commission's inquiry on ISA detention.

"The camp authorities allowed us to visit without the meshed wire barrier a few times but now they are saying that they have received instruction for the families to be separated again," she said.

Hamdan responded by saying he would look into the matter at the earliest opportunity and to seek clarification from the camp authorities.