The Bar Council today called on the government to immediately release the reformasi detainees whose incarceration by the police under the Internal Security Act (ISA) was found by the Federal Court to be "unlawful".

In a statement, the chairperson Mah Weng Kwai said that, since the initial detention by the police has clearly been proved unjustified, there can be no valid ground upon which the government can continue to detain them.

Mah said, the Federal Court's decision on the ISA 5 is of public importance in view of its implications on fundamental constitutional and human rights issues relevant to the subject of preventive detention in Malaysia generally.

Last Friday, the Federal Court the country's highest court allowed an appeal brought by five reformasi leaders that their detention by the police in their first 60 days under the ISA was unlawful.