KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Five lawyers detained in 2009 for attempting to gain access to participants of a candlelight vigil for activist Wong Chin Huat were awarded RM375,000 in damages today after a High Court here declared their arrests wrongful.

In the landmark decision, High Court judge Justice Datuk John Louis O’Hara ruled that the detention amounted to false imprisonment, and that the lawyers’ constitutional rights were denied when after their arrests, they too were not allowed access to legal representation.

“The plaintiffs were never part of the candlelight vigil. They were there not to attend the vigil but to provide legal representation to their clients [detained at the Brickfields police station],” the judge was quoted as saying in The News Straits Times.

The five lawyers arrested were Ravinder Singh Dhalliwal, Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, Murnie Hidayah Anuar, Puspawati Rosman, and Syuhaini Safwan.

According to The Star Online, Justice O’Hara also said that defendants Supt Judy Blacious Pereira and Asst Comm Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid were at the time aware that the five were present at the scene to offer legal assistance to the 14 individuals detained for participating in the vigil.

Pereira was then the Brickfields Criminal Investigation Department chief while ACP Wan Abdul Bari was the district police chief.

The court also found that Pereira had been inconsistent with his reasons for invoking Section 28A(8) of the Criminal Procedure Code to deny the five access to their own lawyers.

Justice O’Hara awarded each of the five RM15,000 in general damages and RM60,000 in aggravated and exemplary damages.

The court also granted costs amounting RM100,000 to the group.

According to the statement of claim, Ravinder, then Kuala Lumpur Legal Aid Centre chairman, and the Centre’s volunteer lawyers Fadiah, Murnie, Puspawati and Syuhaini, were outside the Brickfields police station providing legal assistance to 14 detained individuals when they were arrested on May 7, 2009.

The 14 individuals were arrested earlier for holding a candlelight vigil outside the station to show support for Wong.

The plaintiffs filed the suits in May 2012 against the Inspector General of Police, the police personnel, and the government.

The defendants were then ACP Wan Abdul Bari, then station Criminal Investigation Department chief, Pereira, as well as officers on duty, constables Fauziah Mustafa and Noor Balkhis Maazin, inspector Azlina Norzali, and lance corporal Saha’ri Ehwa.