Four legal aid volunteers trying to educate the public on their basic rights when faced with the police were themselves briefly detained today by police for distributing a book on remand rights.

Two lawyers and two chambering students from the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre (LAC) in Kuala Lumpur had been handing out the Bar Council’s “Red Book: Police and Your Basic Rights” to members of the public in Bukit Jalil here when they were arrested.

The four were taken to Sungei Besi district police headquarters at around 3.00pm for disseminating an “anti-police” publication, LAC KL chairman Ravinder Singh told The Malaysian Insider.

They were released some three hours later without charge. No statements were taken from them, and copies of the “Red Book” which had earlier been confiscated by the police were returned to them.

Ravinder said the Legal Aid Centre, an independent body under the Bar Council, was currently consulting its lawyers and would issue a statement soon.

The “Red Book” — launched in 2006 by de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz — provides information on what to do when stopped, arrested or questioned by the police.

Legal Aid Centre volunteers handed out copies of the book in Sogo, Bintang Walk, Masjid Jamek and Bukit Jalil today to mark the start of National Law Awareness Week.

courtesy of Malaysian Insider