The other organisations are Bersih, the electoral reform coalition, and Malaysiakini, a news portal.

The Bar Council acknowledged on Thursday that it had received an OSF grant of USD15,000 (RM53,757) in January last year for research into migrant workers.

The police investigation into the three organisations falls under Section 124C of the Penal Code which makes it an offence to carry out activities deemed to be detrimental to parliamentary democracy.

The Inspector-General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar said the same team was investigating all three organisations, which comes after a US website published leaked documents from the OSF which gave details of links to Bersih, Malaysiakini and the Bar Council.

Malaysiakini has acknowledged that an OSF grant was used by its broadcast unit KiniTV to produce news bulletins and documentaries on Sarawak.

Bersih has denied that funds from OSF were used to organise its rallies.