Human rights lawyer P Uthayakumar today filed a civil suit against the police seeking a court declaration that his arrest and detention last month by two district police units were unconstitutional and done with malicious intent.

During a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur Civil High Court, Uthayakumar told reporters that he had applied for a declaration that the police had abused their powers in arresting and detaining him twice concurrently.

Among others, he asked for the court to find that "the arrest and detention of the plaintiff for 25 hours without a court order has violated Article 5(4) of the Federal Constitution" and that he had been subjected to "malicious prosecution".

In the suit, Uthayakumar named as defendants five police officers, the Royal Malaysian Police, the attorney-general and the government.

The lawyer, who is also the pro tem secretary-general of Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim), was first arrested by Sepang police o­n Jan 16 for alleged "criminal intimidation" of a police officer handling an investigation into a death in custody.

He was released briefly the following day but rearrested and detained for several hours by Sentul police o­n similar charges.