KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — Activists Adam Adli Abdul Halim and Fariz Musa are set to be released at 10am today, a lawyer said after the two were detained overnight by police for joining a rally in support of jailed Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Adam Adli’s lawyer, New Sin Yew, said their detention at the Jinjang district police headquarters was a gross abuse of police power, pointing out that Sections 142 and 143 of the Penal Code that criminalise joining an unlawful assembly - which were used to arrest the activists - require perpetrators to have used or threatened to use criminal force.

“No such thing during yesterday’s assembly,” New told Malay Mail Online, referring to the gathering at the city centre here against Anwar’s five-year jail sentence in his Sodomy II trial.

“They have a constitutional right to assemble. And the PAA (Peaceful Assembly Act 2012) enshrines that constitutional right as well,” the lawyer added.

New also said that he and another lawyer, Michelle Yesudas, were eventually given access to their clients yesterday.

Yesudas complained yesterday that the police had barred Adam Adli and Fariz from meeting with their lawyers.

Adam Adli and Fariz are the latest pro-opposition activists to be arrested in what appears to be a crackdown against critics of the Federal Court’s decision in Anwar’s case.

Prior to the two, a Malaysian Socialist Party leader and two other activists were arrested under the Sedition Act 1948 for postings on social media about the court verdict.

Putrajaya had previously pledged to repeal the Sedition Act 1948 that critics say is used to stifle dissent, but later announced that it will be retained and expanded instead.

The Federal Court upheld on February 10 the Court of Appeal’s 2014 ruling that had reversed Anwar’s acquittal of sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan and sentenced him to five years’ jail.

Anwar has maintained that the charge was politically driven to end his career, a charge that Putrajaya has repeatedly denied.