The Shah Alam High Court will decide next Friday if two reformasi activists detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) should be produced to the court for their habeas corpus application.

Justice Mohd Hishammuddin Mohd Yunus said this today after hearing submissions from the defence team and the prosecution on whether Keadilan leaders Abdul Ghani Haroon and N Gobalakrishnan should be present in court to hear their application.

Families of Abdul Ghani and Gobalakrishnan filed the application last week seeking their immediate release after they were detained on April 11 and 10, respectively, under the ISA for being a threat to the national security.

Lawyers for the two, led by R Sivarasa, had argued that their clients' presence was vital to ensure that they were in good health as well as to enable the lawyers to take legal instructions from them.

Deputy public prosecutor Abdul Wahab Abdul Rashid submitted today that the detainees will only be brought in if the court ruled so.

He also said that the defence cannot use Article 5(2) of the Federal Constitution as a basis of their argument that the court must order the production of the detainees if they were unlawfully detained.

"The articles states that the court can inquire into a complaint of unlawful detention and if it is satisfied the detention was unlawful, can order the detainee to be produced before the court and release him," he said.

No to Suhakam

Mohd Hishammuddin also asked Abdul Wahab to find out if the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) has been given access to the two detainees and what police response is to a request by the commission seeking the visit.

After a short adjournment to check the matter, Abdul Wahab informed the court that Suhakam was not allowed to visit the detainees. He did not state the reasons why police denied Suhakam access.

He submitted that Suhakam did not fall in the ambits of the Federal Constitution that allowed legal access to all detainees, adding that the law which governs the commission only allowed it to visit places of detention and not specific detainees.

He also added that the law also prohibits Suhakam to look into any matter that was the subject matter of a court hearing.

In response, Sivarasa said there was a precedent where Suhakam had looked into violations of human rights conditions in the Kesas Highway rally on Nov 5 last year in spite of there being a few pending court matters.

"(Furthermore) the request by Suhakam is to visit the detainees and not to hold an inquiry. The subject matter of the visit is not the subject matter of the hearing here," he said.

He also said that there is no distinction in allowing Suhakam to visit a place of detainees and this group of specific detainees.

Abdul Ghani and Gobalakrishnan were among the initial seven arrested, the other five being Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua, party Youth leaders Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor and Saari Sungib, Free Anwar Campaign (Freeanwar.com) webmaster Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin and social activist-cum- malaysiakini columnist Hishamuddin Rais.

The five - Tian Chua, Ezam, Saari, Raja Petra and Hishamuddin - lost their bid for a similar application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Wednesday when Justice Augustine Paul ruled that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the matter.

Two other Keadilan leaders, Dr Badrul Amin Baharom and Lokman Adam, were arrested last Friday and this Tuesday respectively while human rights activist Badaruddin Ismail was nabbed on Wednesday.