Family members of a missing police detainee and lawyer-activist P Uthayakumar ( photo, left ) were among 12 people arrested by police today for allegedly refusing to disperse outside the Brickfields police station in Kuala Lumpur.

They were part of a crowd of about 50 people who had gathered there to accompany a woman lodge a police report regarding her missing son.

The mother, G Sara Lily, claims that her son Francis G Udayapan, had died while in police custody but police maintain that the 24-year-old had escaped from police custody and is now a fugitive.

Among the 12 arrested - including one woman - were Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) youth leaders S Jayathas and G Ganesan.

Brickfields police chief ACP Zul Hasnan Najib Baharuddin refused to comment on the arrests or confirm the number of people held saying "a press conference would be held later".

They were however released on a police bail at about 6.30pm - about six hours after their arrests - and were ordered to report back to the police station on May 15.

The protestors had first gathered outside a video shop in Brickfields, where Francis was employed carrying placards with slogans 'A cover-up to justify cold-blooded murder' and 'Brutal murder under police'.

Sara Lily and Keadilan leaders Tian Chua, Dr Badrulamin Bahron and Abdul Ghani Haroon then gave short speeches. Also present were family members of other alleged police brutality victims.

Disperse order

Addressing the crowd, Sara insisted that her son was already dead and demanded that the police release the body to allow the family to perform 16 th day last rites ceremonies as required by the Hindu religion.

Tian Chua said police investigations into the case should be expedited given its high-profile. He also questioned the silence of Police Royal Commission , established earlier this year, over its stand on deaths in police custody.

After the 15-minutes speeches, the crowd then carried a mock coffin and proceeded to march to the Brickfields police station about a kilometre away.

On arrival at the police station's main gate, they were prevented from entering by policemen as well as Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel who were already on standby.

Uthayakumar then approached ACP Zul and explained that they were there to accompany Sara Lily to lodge a police report regarding the status of her son's case. The Brickfields OCPD refused, saying that only one person would be allowed into the station premises to lodge the report.

Uthayakumar then asked Sara Lily to proceed with lodging her report informing her that he and the rest of the crowd would wait for her outside the police station.

However, after the crowd had waited for about 10 minutes, they were approached by ACP Zul who ordered them to disperse saying they were constituting an illegal assembly. When the crowd hesitated, police moved in and made the arrests.

' Lawyer's duty'

Speaking to reporters later, lawyer N Surendran, who was present at the protest gathering, said police had committed "a serious offence" in arresting the 12, particularly Uthayakumar.

"The 12 should not have been arrested especially Uthayakumar who was fulfilling his duty as a lawyer in accompanying his client, Sara Lily, to lodge a police report. It is an unlawful act to arrest the lawyer," he said.

Francis' case first hit the headlines when Brickfields police announced that he had escaped from their custody and was last seen jumping into the Klang River which flows behind the police compound.

Following a police report lodged by Sara Lily alleging that her son died while in police custody, investigation into the case was taken over by the Kuala Lumpur police contingent headquarters.

Since then, the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters has stepped in and is now heading an internal investigations.

In Oct 2003, the then deputy home affairs minister Chor Chee Heung revealed that there has been a an increase in the number of deaths of detainees in custody since January 2000 with six deaths in 2000, 10 in 2001, 16 in 2002 and seven for the first six months of last year.