The Kuala Lumpur High Court today postponed for the second time the hearing of the appeal against the acquittal of seven university students who were previously charged with illegal assembly.

Judge Abdull Hamid Embong postponed the hearing because one of the students Wan Sanusi Wan Mohd Noor was absent from the hearing.

The first postponement on April 12 was also because Wan Mohd had failed to show up. The judged has fixed September 18 for the next hearing.

The other students are Wan Sanusi Wan Mohd Noor, Razfan Ramli, Nik Noorhafizi Nik Ibrahim, Khairul Amal Mahmud, Ahmad Kamal Abdul Hamid, Zulkefle Idris and Helman Sanuddin.

Dubbed as the 'ISA 7', the students were represented by Edmund Bon and Amir Hamzah Arshad.

The seven were charged with illegal assembly in 2001 in connection with a protest rally against the Internal Security Act (ISA) held outside the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur that year.

They were acquitted by the Kuala Lumpur magistrate's court last April. Three days later, the Attorney-General's Chambers filed an appeal.

After their arrest, the students were barred from attending classes by their respective universities - Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UiTM), Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. (UKM).

Despite the acquittal, only Zulkefle was allowed to complete the final phase of his studies in UTM.