The Bar Council has refused to comment on the arrest of lawyer and former DAP MP Karpal Singh when contacted by malaysiakini this afternoon.

A spokesperson for the council who asked not be named said that "it is not proper for us to comment on the matter as it is now an actual (court) case". He added that the council would not be releasing a press statement over the matter.

Karpal was yesterday arrested for his remarks made in court that "people in high places" were behind an alleged attempt to poison sacked deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim with arsenic last September. He would be charged in court tomorrow under the Sedition Act.

Under the Act, a person deemed to "bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any ruler or against any government" can be fined RM5,000, or sentenced to a three-year jail term or both on conviction for a first offence, and a five-year jail term for subsequent offence.

Meanwhile, DAP national chairman Lim Kit Siang said at a press conference this afternoon that the arrest of Karpal is "more political than legal."

He added that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had on Oct 9 last year acknowledged that Karpal enjoyed immunity for what he said in court in his capacity as defence counsel for Anwar.

"The Prime Minister had conceded and upheld the right to immunity of Karpal as a lawyer in the conduct of his duties as defence counsel in court," Lim said. Mahathir, he said, had now refused to respect the rights of lawyers to immunity.

However, the spokesperson for the Bar Council told malaysiakini that there was no particular written law that said lawyers enjoyed absolute immunity for utterances made by them in the court within the conduct of their duties.

"There is, however, a provision under the Legal Profession (Practice and Etiquette) Rules that states whatever is uttered by a lawyer in court within the conduct of his duties should be said without fear or favour and without regard to any unpleasant consequences either to himself or to any other person," he said.

He announced that the council would be holding a watching brief to observe the case in court.