The London-based human rights watchdog said last week in its 2002 annual report that the Internal Security Act (ISA) "violates the right to a fair and public trial and the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law."

The 31 suspects, alleged to be members of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), are accused of involvement in plots to blow up the US embassy, other foreign targets and vital public facilities in Singapore.

They have been held under the ISA since their arrests between December 2001 and August last year, following the September 2001 attacks in the US.

"Far from being denied the right to a fair hearing, the review mechanism under the Internal Security Act ensures that this right is observed according to the law which is enacted by a Parliament elected by Singapore citizens," the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a statement to AFP.

"Under this law, the detainee has the rights to a legal defense against the charges served against him and to employ legal counsel of his choice to do so, before a review board.

"The ISA Advisory Board seeks to find the full facts of the case before it, with an open and independent mind," said the MHA, which is in charge of internal security.

The review board, headed by a Supreme Court judge appointed by President S.R. Nathan on the advice of the chief justice, has as its members two private citizens.

It has "all the powers and immunities of a court of law" and has full access to information, including classified intelligence, the MHA said.

The board has the power to subpoena and examine any witness, document and evidence relevant to the case under review.

Under the ISA, each case is also reviewed every 12 months regardless of whether the detainee chooses to make a representation, the MHA said.

"We live in the real world where the threat of terrorism to domestic and global security is a key concern to governments and (their) people.

"Each government, working within the context of its laws and socio-political realities, has to be committed to neutralising the terrorist threat to protect its own people as well as to diminish the threat of terrorist violence to the rest of the world," it said.

In its report, Amnesty highlighted the alleged treatment of 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 lawyers and relatives, raising fears that they may have been tortured or ill-treated," Amnesty said.

The JI is accused of having links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. It has been blamed for the devastating bomb attacks in Bali, Indonesia that killed 202 people in October last year.

A primer on the ISA said the act "allows the government to stop illegal groups that can harm the internal security of Singapore from forming and growing."

It is used by the internal security department "to investigate security threats" like terrorism, subversion and espionage.

One of its features is "preventive detention," which allows the government to detain a person seen as a threat to internal security for up to two years without going to court.

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