The British government has placed human rights lawyer P Uthayakumar in a 'safe house' pending the review of his application for temporary asylum.

At a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today, his lawyer M Manoharan furnished documentary evidence as proof that his client was indeed seeking asylum in Britain.

According to the documents, Uthayakumar has been granted temporary admission to the country and has been instructed to reside in a specific location (not disclosed) until his application is processed.

The lawyer said he was seeking asylum after he was assaulted and threatened at gunpoint by several unidentified men as he was driving home in Kuala Lumpur on May 10.

Uthayakumar, a vocal critic of police brutality, said he believes that the police top brass were behind the assault as they were unhappy with the cases he was championing.

The documents released by Manoharan showed that Uthayakumar had made a claim for asylum under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In another document dated May 25, Uthayakumar said: "I am applying for temporary asylum as there is a threat to my life. I wish to return as soon as there is a change to these circumstances."

Despite the documents being highly confidential, Manoharan said, he had no choice but to release them in order to prove that Uthayakumar's bid for asylum was genuine.

"He is not running away from anything. He is there to highlight the issues he has always championed also because of the threat that has originated from his cause," he added.

'No publicity stunt'

Manoharan said he called for a press conference this afternoon to prove that Uthayakumar was applying for asylum and that this was not a publicity stunt as suggested by an afternoon tabloid.

On Saturday, the Malay Mail front-paged a story titled 'What asylum' which questioned the veracity of Uthayakumar's bid.

The article quoted officials from the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and the Malaysian High Commission in London as saying that they were in the dark over the lawyer's application.

"There is no truth to the allegations made here (in the Malay Mail). His asylum bid is real. On May 20, he landed in Heathrow and applied for asylum. The Malay Mail wrote the article without even using our statement," said Manoharan.

The asylum issue was initially revealed at a press conference last Thursday organised by Manoharan and members of the Police Watch and Human Rights Committee.

At the time of the assault, Uthayakumar was involved in the case of deceased police detainee G Francis Udayapan.