Farouk Arnaz & Nurfika Osman, Porong, East Java – Fresh allegations of torture have been made against the police's counterterrorism unit, this time by Islamic hard-liners jailed for the deadly religious strife in Poso and Ambon.

The allegations against Detachment 88 (Densus 88), which has long been criticized for its questionable treatment of terror suspects, were renewed earlier this month following the death in custody of a political prisoner who was serving 12 years for helping hoist the banned South Maluku Republic (RMS) flag during a 2007 visit by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to Ambon, Maluku.

The prisoner's family and rights activists said he was severely beaten while in custody and denied medical treatment despite his failing health and need for dialysis.

Densus 88 has since been accused of torture by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, while the Australian government, which helps fund the unit, said it was "concerned" about the allegations.

In a recent interview with the Jakarta Globe, militant Islamists said their plight had gone unheeded by the West because they were not Christian.

"If the victim is an infidel, including an RMS activist seeking to separate Ambon from Indonesia and create a Christian republic in Maluku, Australia will always show its concern," said Nasrudin "Harun" Mochtar, one of the prisoners. "So why do they keep silent when it happens to us? Don't they know that Densus 88 tortures us too?"

Harun is serving nine years at Porong Penitentiary in East Java for his role in the bloody sectarian violence in Ambon in 1999, and in Poso, Central Sulawesi, which flared up between 1998 and 2001. Both conflicts pitted the Muslims against the majority Christians, and left more than 1,000 people dead.

Harun claimed he had been shot three times in the leg and denied access to a lawyer. "I was later pistol-whipped, electrocuted and stabbed with a bayonet, but nobody cared," he said. "Maybe it's legitimate to torture people like me, for whom there is no justice."

Asep Jaja, another of the Ambon militants, also said he was tortured by Densus 88. "They'd hit us in the head with a gun to make us confess to anything," he said.

"I still get headaches because of that. There's lots of stories here about how the Ambon mujahideen [Islamic warriors] have been tortured by Densus 88." According to Fatur Armen, another prisoner, Australia had only recently addressed the torture allegations because, he said, "they support the RMS."

"But when mujahideen are tortured or killed, they don't say anything," he said.

Suhaib, another of the Ambon militants and recently transferred to Jakarta, said he had been shot five times in both legs.

Indria Fernida, deputy chairwoman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, said the Islamists' claims about Australia could be true. "They fund Densus 88 because they have an interest in fighting [Islamic] terrorists," she said.

However, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Marwoto Soeto called the militants' claims "baseless," and added: "Our officers never commit torture."