Ten individuals are expected to be charged at the Kuala Lumpur magistrate's court tomorrow in connection with the Nov 10 mass rally organised by polls reform group Bersih.

Lawyer R Sivarasa - a spokesperson for Bersih and also PKR vice-president - told Malaysiakini this afternoon that no details are available in relation to the alleged offence.

"We are not sure under which (provision of law) they will be charged - it could be unlawful assembly under the Penal Code or the Police Act," he said.

It is understand that majority of the 10 are members of the marshals unit in opposition party PAS, who had been tasked with traffic-control and crowd discipline on the day.

None of them include any prominent leader of Bersih, a year-old coalition of 67 civil society groups and five opposition parties, in organising the march for electoral reform.

Commenting on the impending move to charge the 10, Sivarasa said: "We regret this decision as it is a direct threat to freedom of assembly."

PAS leader Dr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi ( photo ) said party leaders, including himself and treasurer Dr Hatta Ramli, would be present in court tomorrow to lend support to the 10.

Ban on rally

The move comes three weeks after the mass rally which attracted 40,000 people - the largest in a decade time - to take to the streets to demand for fair and clean elections.

The protesters massed outside the national palace in defiance of a government ban on the rally, even as hundreds of police personnel were deployed in and around Kuala Lumpur and traffic ground to a standstill.

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

Although the rally was generally incident-free, it took an unpleasant turn when police fired tear gas into the crowd and made arrests.

According to an earlier report, 29 were detained during the rally, of whom 24 were released the same day.

Two weeks after the Bersih rally, Kuala Lumpur saw yet another mass rally of some 30,000 supporters of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), who drew attention to their claims of discrimination on racial and religious grounds.

Following the rally, 89 of the Hindraf protesters were charged with illegal gathering, but have claimed trial.