KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: The Government may appeal against the Shah Alam High Court's decision to release Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin from the Internal Security Act (ISA) detention.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abd Aziz said the High Court's decision ought to be respected.

"But I think the Government will appeal," he said yesterday.

The Bar Council said in a statement that "the decision by the High Court judge in Raja Petra's habeas corpus application gives us hope that the judiciary has acted and will act with courage, integrity and independence when the liberty of an individual is threatened by the arbitrary use of power under the ISA".

Its president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said it bode well for the nation that the Judiciary had shown that it was prepared to hold the Executive accountable for any abuse of its powers. Suhakam also welcomed Raja Petra's release and reiterated its stance that the ISA should be repealed and all detainees released, and tried in a court of law.

In Penang, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said: "This is a landmark decision for human rights. It reminds the Government that the time has come to abolish the ISA."

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he was "deeply pleased that the court has the courage to respect the law and will not tolerate any abuse of the ISA as we have seen in the past."