Opposition party KeADILan will go ahead with a public rally in conjunction with the first anniversary of sacked deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's jail term on April 14 despite a police warning that public demonstrations of any kind are banned.

KeADILan youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor said today that the party does not require a police permit to gather at Dataran Merdeka as it was a citizen's constitutional right.

City chief police officer Kamaruddin Ali was quoted by the Star newspaper on Sunday as saying an immediate ban has been imposed with immediate effect on open public rallies, whether political or non-political in nature. It reported that ceramahs held indoors would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

"The assembly will be known as 'Black 14' and will go on as planned as we do not see any reasons for it to be called off," Mohd Ezam said.

Ezam, who is also Anwar's former political secretary, added that the police prohibition showed that this country was heading towards an autocracy.

He, however, stated that the assembly would be held on Saturday, April 15, and not the day before, in order to attract the participation of more people.

He also said that a special prayer is scheduled to be conducted in the open space before the crowd moved to Istana Negara to hand in a memorandum to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong.

"The Malay Rulers must intervene and free the people from being oppressed by the prime minister's regime," Ezam said.

He expressed the hope that the Malay Rulers will be able to assist in improving the judicial system and other important institutions such as the police force and the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) which have been "manipulated by politicians".