Thu, May 21 2009 - KUALA LUMPUR: The Bar Council has submitted a memorandum to the Human Rights Commission on the arrest of five lawyers at the Brickfields police station on May 7.

The lawyers had been trying to provide legal aid to those detained at a candlelight vigil in support of Bersih activist Wong Chin Huat.

Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan said the lawyers were arrested in the course of carrying out their professional obligations in accordance with the law.

"There is a crucial difference between such detention and previous incidents where lawyers were arrested as private citizens," he said.

"The Malaysian Bar is not seeking nor expecting preferential treatment nor exemption from the law.

"It is seeking to uphold the right of lawyers to have access to their clients."

It also plans to submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over the alleged "unlawful detention" of the five lawyers.