The police had summoned Cheah, Rajen Devaraj, chief executive of the Bar Council secretariat, and Roger Chan, a member of the Bar Council.

They refused to give any statement after the police failed to provide them with a first information report (FIR), which forms the basis of starting a police investigation.

“As we were only informed today of the purported section and regulations under which investigations are being carried out, and because we had no sight of the FIR, we decided not to give any statement to the police,” Cheah said in a statement this evening.

Cheah said Dang Wangi police had asked them to make a written request and said that “the decision to provide us with the FIR is solely at their discretion”.

The police investigation, under the Peaceful Assembly Act, is over a protest march organised by the Bar Council on June 17, when some 500 lawyers attempted to march to Parliament House and submit a memorandum to the government to uphold judicial independence.

The lawyers were prevented from carrying out their march by a heavy police presence which included a unit of the Light Strike Force. However, deputy law minister Mas Ermieyati Shamsudin drove to Padang Merbok to accept the memorandum at the car park.

Cheah condemned the police for obstructing the walk, describing the police action as an “abuse of power and public misfeasance”.

“The actions of the police have set a bad example for the citizenry, as it conveys the message that citizens are not free to exercise their constitutional rights even when they comply with the law.”

She said the police had known in advance of the walk and had interfered with the right of peaceful assembly.

The walk was organised to voice dissatisfaction over alleged intimidation towards the judiciary, arising from an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission into Court of Appeal judge Nazlan Mohd Ghazali over an unexplained sum of more than RM1 million in his bank account.