All 26 members of polls reform group Bersih who were arrested this morning for defying a police ban to gather at the Parliament have been released on police bail today.

Some, including PKR secretary-general Khalid Ibrahim, PAS election director Mustapha Ali and a teenager, were among nine people released by police as at 4pm. The remainder 17 were only allowed to go at about 10pm with the condition that they appear at the Kuala Lumpur Magistrates' Court on Dec 18.

The others freed earlier comprise six members of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih), who had gone to Parliament House to hand over a memorandum to Opposition parliamentarians, to submit to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

In all, 26 members of Bersih had been arrested this morning in the vicinity of Parliament House, while attempting to deliver the memorandum on the extension of the Election Commission chief's retirement age via constitutional amendment. 

Among tha last ones to be released included  PKR information chief Tian Chua,  PAS treasurer Dr Hatta Ramli and party Women's chief Nuridah Mohd Salleh and central committee member Dr Lo'Lo' Ghazali, and Parti Socialist Malaysia pro-tem chairperson Dr Nasir Hashim, secretary-general S Arutchelvan and party central committee member S Sivarajan. 

Earlier in the day, eyewitnesses said the police had surrounded Tian Chua’s vehicle and forcibly removed him before arresting him at about 10.40am. Another person in the car was also detained.

Chua had failed to stop at the roadblock and had insisted on moving forward before nine police officers swooped in on him and hauled him away (photo).

About 10 minutes later, Arutchelvan and another identified person were arrested for trying to break the police cordon. The PAS leaders were arrested shortly after.

At about noon, Khalid arrived in Jalan Parliament where he talked briefly to the press gathered just outside the Parliament gates.

"I don't think we will be able to submit a memorandum today. Our main piority now is to help those detained,' he told journalists.

A plainclothes police officer showed him the restraining court order which the Sentul police had obtained yesterday and ordered Khalid to leave.

Subsequently Khalid went to his car. While he on his way there, Sentul district police chief ACP Ahmad Sofian Md Yassin instructed one of his men to arrest the PKR leader.

All those arrested were taken to the Kuala Lumpur contingent police headquarters.

Nazri defends action

More than 400 police surrounded the Parliament to block the electoral reform campaigners who were forced to march there on foot after all roads leading to the building were closed off.

Trees lining the streets were posted with copies of a court order obtained by police that banned the campaigners from parliament.

"The authorities should not have done this. They should have been given the right to hand over a memorandum. After all, that's all they just wanted to do," Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, PKR president and opposition MP, told AFP.

Cabinet minister Mohamad Nazri Aziz however defended the police action.

"They want to come and demonstrate today's amendment to the constitution. So they want to come in big numbers. We will not allow that," he told reporters at parliament.

"We have taken action against them and we are using the court system to prosecute these people," Nazri said.

Rare restraining order

Police had also surrounded opposition party PAS headquarters in Jalan Raja Laut to stop people from leaving the building for Parliament.

According to a statement this morning by the party, five patrol cars and a Federal Reserve Unit had been positioned around the building.

The police also pasted a copy of the restraining order at the building to warn people not to participate in today's event.

Police  blocked all roads leading to Parliament this morning to prevent members of polls reform group Bersih from submitting a protest memorandum against a proposed constitutional amendment.

Yesterday, they obtained a rare restraining court order - the second of its kind following one to ban the Nov 25 Hindraf rally - prohibiting four named individuals and other Bersih supporters from attending or taking part in the gathering.

The named persons are PAS leaders Dr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi, Mohamad Sabu and Adenaan Saad and Malaysian Trade Union Congress chief Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud.

The order also stipulated that "other interested parties" are similarly prohibited from taking part in the gathering. It allowed the police to 'arrest on sight'  those found in the vicinity of Parliament House.

Eight people, including five lawyers, were charged today with participating in an illegal assembly yesterday. They also faced a further charge of disobeying the police order to disperse.

To add to this, another lawyer, Edmund Bon, was charged with obstructing Kuala Lumpur City Hall officers from performing their duties.

He was charged under section 186 of the Penal Code which carries a punishment of maximum three-months jail or a maximum fine of RM1,000, or both.

For the first batch of eight marchers, they were charged under Section 143 of the Penal Code for illegal assembly and under Section 145 of same code for failing to disperse. They also faced alternate charges under the Police Act.

For the first charge, Section 143 of the Penal Code allows for a six months jail or with fine, or both while Section 27 (5) Police Act carries a maximum of one-year jail sentence or a fine not exceeding RM10,000.

For the second charge, the Penal Code carries a two year-imprisonment sentence or fine, or both while Section 27 (4) of the Police Act which carries similar punishment as 27 (5).

All nine of those charged claimed trial at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court. The prosecution was personally led by attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail - the government's highest ranking legal officer - who objected bail for all charged today.

The AG submitted his reasons for not wanting to grant bail to the eight on grounds that he believed they would repeat the offence and alleged that some were “notorious” to have repeatedly participated in illegal assemblies.

“The authorities specifically, through the media and in accordance with law, told the public to not participate in the assembly as it was illegal but this group defied the legitimate orders and went on to march. If this is so, I believe that they are very much capable of repeating the offence.” he said.

On his submission as to why Bon should not be granted bail, Abdul Gani said that the lawyer’s act of defiance would “create the perception that it is okay to defy the authorities”.

“This will create disorder and threat to the national security,” he submitted.

However, Sessions judge Komathy Suppiah rejected Abdul Gani's arguments and allowed bail for all the accused persons.

She set bail at RM2,000 each for the eight marchers, with hearing was fixed from Jan 28 to 31 next year.

Bon, on the other hand, was granted bail at RM1,000. His case will be heard from March 3 to 5 next year.

'Pak Lah politically insecure'

The eight marchers were arrested yesterday for taking part in a march in conjunction with the International Human Rights Day, which is celebrated today.

The police had arrested them soon after giving them time to disperse.

The eight include lawyers N Surendra, Latheefa Koya, R Sivarasa, Eric Paulsen and Amer Hamzah. The remaining three were Nooraza Othman, Johny Anbu @ Abu Bakar Adnan, Ashraf Sadakathullah.

Later in the day, Bon, who is the Bar Council’ human rights committee chairperson, was arrested for blocking DBKL officials from removing human rights banners outside the Malaysian Bar building in Leboh Pasar Besar in Kuala Lumpur.

One high-profile accused person, Sivarasa told Malaysiakini in the court today that the AG’s objection to bail was “indicative of the oppressive nature of this administration”.

“This shows that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is politically insecure,” he said.

“There were more police personnel at the march yesterday morning than the marchers.” he added.

The eight marchers were represented by M Puravelan, K Ragunath and Tommy Thomas. Bon also had a big team of lawyers to represent him, including Sri Kanth Pillai, Bernard Francis, Brendan Siva, Saha Deva, Richard Wee and Chan Weng Keng.

The police today conducted simultaneous arrests in various states of two top opposition leaders and a dozen of others who took part in the Nov 10 Bersih rally.

Prominent PAS leader Mohamad Sabu was arrested in Perak while PKR information chief Tian Chua was arrested in Johor.

When contacted at 4.45pm, Mohamad Sabu’s wife told Malaysiakini that her husband was in the midst of being taken away by the police from Ipoh where he was attending his daughter’s wedding.

Meanwhile, Tian Chua was arrested outside human rights organisation Suaram’s office in Johor Baru at 5.15pm by a police team from Kuala Lumpur.

PAS leader Dr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi confirmed the arrests of the other Bersih supporters in different states.

The 14 have been arrested under the Police Act for participating in an illegal assembly. Ten of them have been earlier arrested following the rally and released on police bail.

Their bail is to expire on Monday and all those arrested today are expected to be charged at the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate’s Court tomorrow.

It is understood that majority of those detained are members of the marshals unit in opposition party PAS, who had been tasked with traffic control and maintaining crowd discipline during the massive rally.

Today's crackdown came ahead of another planned gathering on Tuesday where Bersih seeks to hand over a protest memorandum to Parliament.

The polls reform coalition wants the government to withdraw the Constitutional Amendment Bill scheduled to be tabled on that day which, if passed, will see the current Election Commission chairperson’s tenure being extended by a year, to the new age limit of 66.

Ban on rallies

About 40,000 people took to the streets in the Nov 10 Bersih rally to demand for fair and clean elections.

The protesters massed outside the national palace in defiance of a government ban and despite that thousands of police personnel were deployed in and around Kuala Lumpur, bringing traffic to a standstill.

A memorandum was handed to a palace official by a delegation led by PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim before the crowd dispersed peacefully.

Although the rally was generally incident-free, the police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water into a crowd near the Masjid Jamek LRT station in the bid to disperse them.

According to reports, 29 were detained at the rally, of whom 24 were released the same day.

The Bersih rally was followed by another mass rally three weeks later where 30,000 supporters of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) poured into the streets of Kuala Lumpur to draw attention to allegations of racial and religious discrimination.

Last week, 31 Hindraf protesters were charged with attempted murder at the Nov 25 rally, while 16 of them were also slapped with an additional charge of taking part in an illegal assembly.

The police action against street protesters continued today with the arrest of eight people, including five lawyers, for taking part in a human rights march in Kuala Lumpur.

In addition, it is also learnt that PKR leader N Gobalakrishnan would be made the 32nd person to be charged with attempted murder at the Shah Alam Sessions Court tomorrow in regards to the Hindraf rally.

The police have arrested eight people, including five lawyers, for proceeding with a march to mark International Human Rights Day from the Sogo department store to Central Market in Kuala Lumpur early this morning.

The arrests came after a failed attempt by the organisers of the march to negotiate with the police to allow them to finish their march at their intended spot.

The 100-odd crowd was already halfway to their destination when the 500-strong police force gave the marchers a 10-minute warning to disperse.

The organisers, who believed that they could complete their march within the time limit, wanted to press on. According to an eyewitness, the police however cordoned off the area, moved in and made the arrests even before the stipulated deadline expired. 

Those arrested included five lawyers - N Surendran (right), Latheefa Koya, R Sivarasa, Eric Paulsen and Amer Hamzah. Others were Anthony Andu, Noor Aza Othman and a bystander identified only as Ashraf Ali Raja.

They were arrested near the Jalan Tun Perak LRT station and were immediately taken to the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters.

The eight were arrested under the Police Act for illegal assembly, said Dang Wangi's acting superintendent Che Hamzah Che Ismail.

"Firstly, the demonstrators did not have a permit to be here," he said. "And because the lawyers and demonstrators failed to leave after repeated warnings to disperse, we had to take action."

 The remainder of the marchers dispersed following the arrests and there was a heavy police presence in the area for a few hours.

"Authorities seem to be upset by any visible signs of protest and I think this is a problem with the country," said Sivarasa, who is also a leader of PKR.

"They don't seem to be able to deal with peaceful dissent," he told AFP before he was arrested.

Organiser Latheefa said that Malaysians needed to continue to exercise their constitutional right to public assembly.

Willing to cooperate

Earlier today, at about 8am, the small group of about 100 gathered at the Sogo departmental store under the watchful eyes of the police. There were however no signs of the dreaded Federal Reserve Unit and their water cannon trucks.

The marchers had carried banners that read "Lawyers for the freedom of assembly" and "Government that abuses human rights is terrorist."

Eyewitnesses said that one of the persons arrested was dragged into the waiting police truck and the arrests were done despite the marchers’ willingness to cooperate with the police.

This small group of marchers have undertaken this march after the Bar Council had dropped its annual march in conjunction with the International Human Rights Day celebration - which falls on Dec 10 - due to pressure to obtain a police permit.

Yesterday the police had warned the public not to participate in the march given that no permit had been issued for the gathering.

"As no permit has been issued for the gathering, those who take part in it can be charged under Section 27(5) of the Police Act 1967 for participating in an illegal assembly," warned Che Hamzah in a Bernama report.

Upon the decision of the Bar Council to call off the march, at least 15 lawyers decided to proceed with the walk to make a statement that citizens have a right to assemble peacefully and without prior requirement of a police permit.

Venue changed

Two days ago, Surendran had said that the march was purely initiated by a group of concerned lawyers, adding that the organisers will not be applying for a police permit.

“We think that applying for a permit is a negation of our fundamental right to freedom of assembly as enshrined in Article 10 of the Federal Constitution,” he had explained.

“We feel the (Bar Council) march was called of due to undue pressure from the authorities. We want to send a message that the people of Malaysia have the right to a peaceful assembly,” Surendran said.

Bar Council chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan meanwhile had explained that the decision to call off the march was made after “anxious consideration to the present circumstances that surround the event, particularly the interests of the public and the Malaysian Bar."

The Bar Council also moved its “Festival of Rights” event today to its own building located near Central Market after police insisted that organisers apply for a permit to hold the event at Central Market.

In a related development, Ambiga today expressed disappointed over not being allowed to see the arrested people.

Ambiga said that the march was peaceful and slammed the arrests as "totally unnecessary and unfortunate."

"The Bar holds the view that requirement of police permit is unconstitutional," she told reporters.

Later when contacted, Ambiga said that it was likely that the eight marchers would be charged tomorrow at the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate’s Court.

The police have also not decided if they want to release the eight or keep them detained overnight, she said.

“I don’t understand why they are being held. After all they have all given their statement,” she said after meeting the arrested marchers at the KL police headquarters.

She said that it was also a disgrace for the police to arrest these people, especially on the eve of the World Human Rights Day.

Meanwhile the police continued to exert pressure on the Bar Council over their ‘Festival of Rights’ by arresting the council’s human rights committee chairperson Edmund Bon, allegedly for preventing the authorities from performing their duty.

Eyewitnesses said that Edmund was arrested at about 12.45pm for blocking Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) officials from removing human rights banners outside the Malaysian Bar building in Leboh Pasar Besar in Kuala Lumpur.

Immediate response

In an immediate response, PKR de facto leader and ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim lambasted the authorities for using the law "to subvert freedom and to suppress the people's fundamental democratic right to peaceful assembly".

"In the absence of any evidence that they planned to jeopardise the public's safety, their arrest represents nothing more than scare tactics we have seen used in the past by the Malaysian government as it prepares to unleash the draconian measures of the Internal Security Act," said Anwar in a statement this afternoon.

"The individuals who have been detained today are among the most patriotic Malaysian citizens and many have dedicated their life's work to upholding the rule of law."

Meanwhile, Penang-based social movement Aliran said it deplored the "thoughtless and mindless reaction" of the government in cracking down on the march.

"We are appalled that even a small gathering of marchers to a nearby destination in an orderly manner without obstructing the traffic or causing any chaos to the public cannot be allowed or tolerated by this oppressive regime," said Aliran president P Ramakrishnan.
 
"If this little act of a democratic principle cannot be exercised in a responsible manner, can we pretend to be a democratic country any longer? This state abuse of our fundamental rights shames the country and condemns the leaders as hypocrites."

Ramakrishnan called on the government to release those arrested, whom he described as "brave Malaysians who have been unjustifiably detained".