Lawyers protesting at the arrest of terror suspect Abu Bakar Bashir have won support from several members of Indonesia's parliament.

The lawyers, accompanied by representatives from the Indonesian Muhjahedeen Council which Bashir heads and the Surakarta Muslim Youth Front, met members of a parliamentary commission.

"We told the MPs that we consider the arrest and detention of ustadz [teacher] Abu Bakar Bashir as being unwarranted and conducted in violation of police procedures," said lawyer Mahendradatta.

Police say Bashir, 65, led the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and will be charged with involvement in its terror attacks between 1999-2002, including the Bali nightclub bombings which killed 202 people.

His arrest early Friday outside Jakarta's Salemba prison sparked off violent clashes with supporters in which about 100 police and protesters were hurt.

After the hearing, commission deputy chairman Hamdan Zoelva told reporters that he and several other commission members had agreed to sign a letter guaranteeing that Bashir would not flee and demanding his release.

"It is impossible for the ustadz who is already so old, to flee and destroy evidence so that he can escape the law," said Zoelva, an MP of the Islamic Crescent and Star Party.

During the hearing the delegation showed a video recording of the arrest and of the preceding clashes. They later went to the National Commission on Human Rights to press their case.

Bashir's lawyers, along with hardline and some mainstream Muslim groups, see Bashir's arrest as a result of US pressure. "We are protesting because this is purely a US intervention," Mahendradatta said.

Bashir, who is being held at national police headquarters, was rearrested just moments after completing a prison sentence for immigration violations.

A court last September jailed him for four years for involvement in a JI plot to overthrow the government but said there was no proof he led the network.

An appeal court overturned the treason conviction but ruled that Bashir must serve three years for immigration-related offences. The Supreme Court halved that sentence.

Police say they have new evidence that Bashir was JI's leader while his lawyers have described it as "nonsense".