KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 ― Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, DAP's Anthony Loke, PAS's Dr Hatta Ramli and PSM's S. Arutchelvan were all released today after a magistrate rejected the police’s application to extend their arrests a further four days.
Gobind Singh Deo, one of the lawyers for the quartet, said they were ordered, however, to return to the Dang Wangi district police headquarters at 4pm later to continue giving their statements.
“There is no need to detain them for investigations as they are cooperative and they surrendered themselves last night when the police called ... this is the general grounds on which the remand was refused,” Gobind told reporters.
Ambiga, Loke and Arutchelvan were called in by the police last night after the peaceful May Day ended to give their statements.
The trio were detained overnight while Hatta was arrested after giving his statement at the Dang Wangi station this morning.
Twenty-nine protesters were also detained last night near KLCC about two hours after the peaceful May Day rally ended.
This morning, the police were granted remand orders to detain the remainder a further three days to assist with investigations.
It is understood that activist Hishamuddin Rais, PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli, and PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang were also arrested this morning over their participation in the rally.
The rally by civil society movement #KitaLawan kicked off shortly after 2.30pm yesterday from several meeting points in KL and drew a reported crowd of about 10,000 participants to the streets of the capital.
There were no report of casualties arising from the rally that is said to have progressed peacefully in a march by a sea of thousands of Malaysians clothed in red and black.
After the event, however, police claimed on their official Facebook account that the rally was not fully under control, citing incidents of alleged vandalism and smoke bombs being thrown by the protesters to back up its claim.
