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AMNESTY International criticised Singapore's authorities on Wednesday, May 28, for the continued detention of 31 suspected Islamic terrorists without trial.

The men, alleged to be members of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) or linked to it, have been held under Singapore's Internal Security Act (ISA) since their arrests between December 2001 and August last year.

"The ISA violates the right to a fair and public trial and the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law," the London-based human rights watchdog said in its report on 2002.

JI is accused of having links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and of carrying out the devastating Bali bomb attacks that killed 202 people in October last year.

The 31 suspects being held in Singapore are accused of being involved in alleged plots to blow up the US embassy, other foreign targets and vital public facilities in the city-state.

Amnesty highlighted the alleged treatment of the 18 suspects arrested in August last year, all of whom can be detained for two years without being charged.

"During the first few weeks of their detention they were denied access to laywers and relatives, raising fears that they may have been tortured or ill-treated," Amnesty said in its report.

The Singaporean government has previously defended its handling of the JI suspects, saying their detention was in the interests of national security.

"Such groups threaten the safety of Singaporeans and the cohesion of Singaporean society," a government paper on the JI, issued in January, said of regional Islamic radical organisations.

Amnesty also criticised Singapore's government for allegedly jailing at least 27 members of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious group in 2002 for refusing to do national military service.

"Those who refuse to perform military service receive an initial 15-month sentence, followed by a further two years for a second refusal," Amnesty said.

Amnesty further accused Singapore's ruling People's Action Party of maintaining its iron grip on power by imposing controls on the press and civil society organisations.

Amnesty said nine people - two Thais and seven Pakistanis - were known to have been executed in 2002 for drug trafficking or murder under Singapore's death penalty laws.

But the group said the actual number of people executed could have been higher because the government did not publish statistics about capital punishment.

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