JAKARTA (AFP)--A radical Islamist leader detained in Indonesia over an armed attack on a rally for religious tolerance said Monday he had been wrongfully arrested and demanded to be immediately released.

Lawyers for Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab filed a petition for his release in the South Jakarta district court, saying his arrest on June 4 was unlawful.

"The arrest is considered unlawful as police do not have enough preliminary evidence as required under Indonesian law for a detention," lawyer Ari Yusuf Amir told the court.

He argued that his client was not involved in the June 1 attack by hundreds of stick-wielding FPI fanatics as he was not at the scene when the assault took place.

The turban-wearing preacher has been charged with assault, inciting violence and protecting a fugitive, and faces up to nine years' jail.

Shihab was one of more than 50 FPI members rounded up in a crackdown after the attack, of whom only eight remain in custody.

Some 300 white-clad supporters of Shihab crowded the court but remained calm throughout the hearing.

The rally which was attacked at the national monument in Jakarta was organized by moderate civil society groups and secular leaders as a show of support for pluralism and tolerance in Indonesia.

The Front, which wants sharia or Islamic law, has launched a series of violent vigilante attacks since 2000, with targets including the US embassy and nightclubs.

Shihab recently declared "war" on a minority Islamic sect which does not believe Mohammed was the final prophet, breaching one of the basic tenets of the religion.

Hardline militantism and the government's moves to restrict the activities of the minority Ahmadiyah sect have raised concerns that religious freedom is under attack in the world's most populous Muslim country.

Source: WallStreetJournal