About 100 people have started gathering outside the Pudu remand centre in Kuala Lumpur, calling for the release of some 50 people detained yesterday for taking part in a protest against price hikes.

Those detained - including Malaysiakini journalist Syed Jaymal Zahiid - are expected to face a remand hearing later today.

Lawyers acting for the detainees however are saying that the have not been given sufficient access to their clients.

They are threatening to stage a walkout when the magistrate arrives for the remand hearing if they are not given time to talk to those detained.

“What is the point if we are given access only for a few minutes before the remand hearing? We can’t get proper instructions from our clients,” said lawyer Mohamed Hanipa Maidin.

Twelve released unconditionally

Last night the police released 12 people, including a 16-year-old child and a pregnant woman. They were released unconditionally without being charged.

Meanwhile AFP said that the police refused to say why Syed Jaymal, who had been asking an officer for information, was taken away. The government has refused to give Malaysiakini staff the press pass which journalists need to access official events.

"I'm definitely disturbed by this. It shows that police are not respecting the rights of journalists to do their job," said Malaysiakini's editor in chief Steven Gan.

"They should have released him as soon as he identified himself as a journalist," he told AFP.

The protest - the latest in an unprecedented series of street rallies - had been aimed at highlighting public anger over rising prices of food and fuel, ahead of elections expected to be held in March.

Police, who had warned the protest was illegal, turned out in their hundreds to disperse the gathering of about 100 people at the Twin Towers, which were barricaded and under heavy guard.